TRIATHLON – Belgian triathlete Marten Van Riel and Bahrain Victorious’ British star Kat Matthews won the men’s and women’s races respectively in the Ironman 70.3 Middle East Championship Bahrain yesterday.
His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, attended the closing ceremony and presented trophies to the winners in various categories, including Mohammed Alqais, who won first place in the Bahraini men’s category and Roya Alsaati, who topped in the Bahraini female category.
Also present on the occasion was His Majesty King Hamad’s representative for humanitarian work and youth affairs Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Van Riel made up for a slow start in the opening leg of the men’s race – the 1.9km swim – which saw the German Wilhelm Hirsch exit the water just ahead of South African Henri Schoeman to set the tone in the 90km bike ride that followed.
With British double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee and his compatriots Max Stapley and Dan Dixon, Danish athlete Emil Holm and another South African, Nicholas Quenet all mounting a strong challenge to Van Riel, the Belgian still managed to stay ahead of the pack with Hirsch right alongside him by the time the last leg of the triathlon – the 21.1km run – arrived.
Van Riel then slowly edged ahead of Hirsch while Brownlee, who had been one of the favourites coming into the event, falling out of contention because of a punctured tyre in the bike leg.
With the Belgian looking a certainty to win the title as he closed in on the finish line, Schoeman drew ahead of Stapley and tried to close the gap with Van Riel.
But Van Riel was about a minute ahead of the South African and that proved to be the Belgian’s eventual victory margin over Schoeman, with Stapley finishing third, more than three minutes behind this year’s champion.
Meanwhile, in the women’s pro event, Matthews – who was the runner-up at the 2021 Ironman World Championship and placed second in the 2023 Ironman 70.3 World Championship – produced a magnificent final performance on the final leg to clinch the gold medal with Bahrain Victorious teammate, Amelia Watkinson, from New Zealand, coming in second to make it a memorable one-two finish for the kingdom’s team. Caroline Pohle, of Germany, finished third.
Matthews had a poor first leg where she was the sixth athlete to emerge from the water, 2m 46s behind then leader and fellow Brit Lucy Buckingham who led then second-placed Pohle by 30 seconds and had a lead of about a minute over the Danish pair of Anne Holm and Sif Bendix Madsen.
But Buckingham had an accident in the bike leg which led to her being admitted to hospital after the race – although she still bravely battled on to finish seventh – and Matthews began her charge in the run, overtaking Australian Ellie Salthouse and Watkinson in the first five kilometres.
Despite her injury, Buckingham was still soldering on and had led Matthews by almost five minutes at the start of the last leg.
But Matthews was on the move now and cut a minute out of that deficit already.
With about 10km to go, Pohle, who had trailed Buckingham by 1m 40s at the start of the run, had moved to within 43 seconds of the leader, who was clearly suffering by now.
Meanwhile, Matthews had cut three minutes off her deficit by now after an extremely swift 10km run and soon moved past Pohle to overtake Buckingham, with the German, Watkinson and Salthouse following suit.
Soon, Matthews had built up a one-minute lead over Watkinson and before long, the Brit had crossed the finish line, to thundering applause from an enthusiastic crowd, where she was handed her winner’s medal immediately by Shaikh Nasser.
“This race was incredibly challenging with fierce competition challenging us to our limits,” she said afterwards.
“I am thrilled to emerge as the champion and grateful for the support of my team. This victory will motivate us to strive for even greater success in future competitions.”
The three medalists each from the men’s and women’s events have now clinched their slots in next year’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship in New Zealand
Meanwhile, there was further delight for Bahrain in the team competition with the KHK team winning in the men’s category while the TTF team won the women’s event.
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