Kat Matthews ticked off ‘Plan B’ in her IRONMAN Pro Series tilt in some style with victory at 70.3 Elsinore.
The Briton has won the Pro Series – and the $200,000 prize that goes with it – in each of the last two years but her hat-trick bid was dealt a serious blow by a race-wrecking puncture at IRONMAN Texas.
But she pivoted to add an extra 70.3 into the equation just two weeks before her Challenge Roth debut and the move paid dividends as she collected the maximum 2,500 points on offer.
She had just under two minutes to make up after the swim and that had risen to three minutes after the bike but she erased that within 9km of the run and spent the rest of the half marathon high-fiving her way around the course as she kept her rivals at arm’s length.
Katrine Græsbøll Christensen (DEN), just two weeks after finishing third at IRONMAN Hamburg, went one better here with second place despite a penalty in T1, with Lena Meißner (DEU) third.
Swim – Six go clear
The in-water start saw Fenella Langridge (GBR) get out quickly before Lotte Wilms (NED) took over in front, with Meißner right on her feet
Marta Sanchez (ESP) was there too as was Luisa Iogna Prat (ITA) and Natalie Van Coevorden and those six moved well clear of the rest on what was a relatively technical course which snaked around Elsinore Harbour.
Van Coevorden was out of the water first in 24:15, with the other five all within 10 seconds and then it was 52 seconds back to Audrey Merle (FRA) in seventh.
Matthews at this point was ninth at +1:48.
Bike – Work still to do
There was a 30 seconds penalty for Græsbøll Christensen for picking up her bike before clipping on her helmet – to add to her deficit of over four minutes after the swim.
But she would make impressive progress as she started to pull back time on the leaders.
She had halved it to two minutes by halfway as she bridged up to Matthews while up front Wilms, Sanchez, Meißner and Merle had been joined by Hanne De Vet (BEL).
Five became six when Græsbøll Christensen reached them – but Matthews wasn’t making any ground, indeed she was losing some as she got to T2 in seventh place, at +2:57.
Run – Kat a class apart
The run though was the ‘Kat show’ as she put on a masterclass.
Meißner led after first of three full laps before Græsbøll Christensen, who had struggled early on the run, moved into the lead.
Her place at the head of affairs didn’t last long though as Matthews had needed just 8.4km to erase a three-minute deficit!
With Challenge Roth coming up it then looked like Kat dialled things back a bit and speaking afterwards she explained: “The plan was to do what I could to get to the front. But I absolutely did not expect that [to get there so quickly] as I’d felt so bad on the bike. But one of the pro men came past me at the start of the run and I was like ‘bam, switch on’ and I just ran with him for what must have been 8k or something – I can blame him!”
She smiled and high-fived her way round from that point onwards and still managed a 1:16 half marathon to win by 35 seconds.
There were three slots for the 70.3 Worlds in Nice on offer and they rolled right down (presuming they accept them) to De Vet in sixth, Langridge in ninth and Leana Bissig (SUI) in tenth.
IRONMAN 70.3 Elsinore 2026 results
Sunday 21 June – 1.9km, 90km, 21.1km
Pro Women
| Pos | Athlete | Nationality | Swim | Bike | Run | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kat Matthews | GBR | 0:26:04 | 2:15:10 | 1:16:36 | 4:02:57 |
| 2 | Katrine Christensen | DEN | 0:28:08 | 2:09:56 | 1:19:31 | 4:03:33 |
| 3 | Lena Meißner | GER | 0:24:17 | 2:14:16 | 1:21:13 | 4:04:55 |
| 4 | Audrey Merle | FRA | 0:25:08 | 2:13:49 | 1:21:54 | 4:05:58 |
| 5 | Marta Sanchez | ESP | 0:24:19 | 2:13:57 | 1:23:03 | 4:06:33 |
| 6 | Hanne De Vet | BEL | 0:24:21 | 2:14:10 | 1:23:13 | 4:06:44 |
| 7 | Lotte Wilms | NED | 0:24:20 | 2:13:59 | 1:24:40 | 4:08:17 |
| 8 | Natalie Van Coevorden | AUS | 0:24:15 | 2:18:08 | 1:21:50 | 4:09:14 |
| 9 | Fenella Langridge | GBR | 0:24:16 | 2:17:05 | 1:24:02 | 4:10:23 |
| 10 | Leana Bissig | SUI | 0:26:01 | 2:16:28 | 1:23:25 | 4:10:56 |
