Kat Matthews scored a silver medal at the San Francisco T100 over the weekend despite her last-minute entry into the race, finishing with a time of 3:41:48 over the two-kilometre swim, 80-kilometre bike, and 18-kilometre run.
The Ironman vice world champion bounced back from disappointment last week at Ironman Hamburg, where a disqualification due to overtaking in a prohibited zone prematurely ended her race. Matthews made no mistakes this time around: she rode the currents in the point-to-point swim in San Francisco Bay just off the coast of Alcatraz to come fourth out of the water, recorded the second-fastest split on the six hilly loops of the course despite a dropped chain, then ran a minute faster than eventual winner and Olympic contender Taylor Knibb.
“I think there was something special about this; I had so much energy from my dramas last weekend and maybe a good long taper actually suits me,” said Matthews post-race. “I’ve just got back to a level playing field, like a sort of redemption of my own personal performance, so I’m still now desperate for that personal satisfaction to go higher.”
This is the British star’s first finish and first podium on the T100 Tour circuit, as she had suffered a calf tear while racing the Miami leg in March.
In the men’s race, compatriot and fellow Bahrain Victorious 13 member Alistair Brownlee put a solid 14th place finish under his belt, after tweaking his ankle at Singapore T100 in April and being out of commission for six weeks.
With ranking determined by the sum of points earned from three best performances on the T100 Tour, Matthews enters the women’s leaderboard at #10 with 28 points from T100 San Francisco while Brownlee adds 7 points to the 20 he earned with a fifth place in Miami to rank #12.
