The field was not as deep as the men’s, but there was still more than enough to enjoy during the women’s race at Ironman Texas. That was mostly thanks to two ladies: Kat Matthews and Taylor Knibb. For a long time it seemed that Knibb would win the race, but during the marathon Matthews proved to be from another world and much stronger then her American opponent. Matthews also won Ironman Texas in 2023 and 2024.
The swim leg was still led by Rachel Zilinskas; she came back from her 3.8-kilometer swim after just 50:35 minutes, followed immediately by Knibb. Haley Chura followed as third woman, 59 seconds behind, but after that it was several minutes of waiting for the next women to go for the bike. For Matthews, the gap was even more significant: she was ninth after the swim and then six minutes behind.
On the bike, Zilinskas briefly tried to keep up with Knibb, but that soon proved to be an illusion that could not be realized. While biking, Knibb rode so strongly that no one could match her. Except Matthews, because somewhat unnoticed she managed to advance to second position and in T2 her gap was reduced to 5:46 minutes. Over 180 kilometers of biking, the two ladies were not really inferior to each other, something that would totally change during the marathon.
Whereas in recent years Knibb has proved dominant at the half distance and is simply inimitable, she has more difficulty mastering the full distance. Once again, she was totally unable to match Matthews’ killer running pace. After only 15 kilometers, Matthews had made up her six-minute deficit already and took over the lead in the race. For that matter, Knibb also had no energy to try to catch on at all; she watched idly as Matthews ran away from her and would grab an only larger lead.
Matthews won the race in a lightning-fast time of 8:10:34. Knibb followed in second in 8:20:15 and Austria’s Lisa Perterer finished third in 8:28:17.
Tim Moria
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