The final showdown of the triathlon elite will take place at the Women’s Ironman World Championship 70.3 on Saturday. After the drama race in Hawaii, all the protagonists agreed to take revenge over the half distance. Only Laura Philipp is missing for personal reasons.
It wasn’t even a month ago that the world’s best triathletes fought an epic race at the Long Distance World Championships in Hawaii. In brutal, tropical conditions, both Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay and America’s Taylor Knibb looked like sure winners before they collapsed completely and had to be taken out of the race by their support staff.
While Knibb was still sitting on the asphalt of the lava island, completely overheated, the future world champion Solveig Lovseth ran past her. But the surprise winner from Norway was almost intercepted and in the end she only managed to reach the finish line a good 30 seconds ahead of the onrushing Brit Kat Matthews. You can hardly get more drama in eight and a half hours.
Laura Philipp had to cancel
Charles-Barclay, Knibb, Lovseth and Matthews – they are all back at the start on Saturday when it comes to the half-distance crown (70.3) in Marbella, southern Spain (live stream from 7.45 a.m. on sportschau.de and in the ARD media library). At the final showdown of the triathlon stars of the year, only Laura Philipp, who came third in the race in Hawaii, was actually missing.
The Heidelberg native actually wanted to compete in Marbella because she had recovered surprisingly well from Hawaii, she wrote on Instagram at the beginning of the week. But now her dog Nino has become very sick and the priority is now to be there for the animal. Therefore, she forgoes the 1.9 kilometer swim, the 90 kilometer bike ride and the half marathon on the Mediterranean coast.
Pohle and Co. represent Germany
After Germany’s strongest triathlete was eliminated, Caroline Pohle, Laura Jansen, Bianca Bogen and Tanja Neubert now represent the home colors. Pohle and in July in Jönköping, Sweden, had a duel with a photo finish with Lena Meissner at the 70.3 European Championships, which was only counted for Meissner later and after a protest aria at the green table. Now she is hoping for a top ten placement in this absolutely top field.
At the very front, the experts expect a duel between the protagonists from Hawaii. Knibb is hoping for her fourth 70.3 title in a row, Charles-Barclay (the 2021 half-distance world champion) will, as always, put pressure on the competition from the start in swimming and Kat Matthews will play to her strengths in the marathon. And then there is always the surprising Hawaii winner Lovseth. It smells like drama again.