Taylor Knibb Three-Peats at Ironman 70.3 World Championship

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As the seconds ticked down before the women’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship in New Zealand, a large group of Māori women, clad in traditional dress, rowed ashore from the waters of Lake Taupo to perform the haka, a ceremonial dance to commemorate important occasions and welcome visiting tribes. It was a striking moment that foretold the display of strength and power that was to come in the race ahead, where American Taylor Knibb unleashed a 24:30 swim, 2:10:09 bike, and 1:19:20 run to win her third consecutive 70.3 world championship title in 3:57:34.

Great Britain’s Kat Matthews, who finished second, earned enough points to make her way to the front of the 2024 Ironman Pro Series in the final race of the year, securing the largest share of the $1.7 million series bonus purse.

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2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship women’s results: Swim

It was a brisk start for the athletes, with a 58-degree F air temp, 66-degree F water temperature, and a slight wind coming off the shore. Immediately after the starting horn sounded, Knibb went full send, surging to the front group with Imogen Simmonds (CHE), Sara Perez Sala (ESP), Lotte Wilms (NED), and Rebecca Clarke (NZL) lining up on her feet.

The women’s pro race kicks off at the 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship. (Photo: Fiona Goodall/Ironman)

In their slipstream, a chase pack formed, led by Julie Derron (CHE), Marta Sanchez (ESP), and Ashleigh Gentle (AUS). A third pack containing Matthews and Paula Findlay (CAN) fought to maintain contact in the opening meters of the swim. This third pack also contained Caroline Pohle (DEU), who seemed to struggle in the chilly and slightly choppy waters. Pohle, who was close to Knibb in the opening stretch of the swim, was observed flipping for a few strokes of backstroke to catch her breath before resuming.

Both chase packs merged with the leading four just before the final turnaround of the one-loop swim course, and the chaos of 15 athletes rounding a turn buoy saw a reconfiguration of the race leaders, with Perez Sala moving to the front and Knibb in fifth place. This configuration held through the swim exit, where Perez Sala exited the water first with a swim split of 24:20 for 1.2 miles; on her heels was Wilms in 24:21 and Clarke 24:22; nine seconds down from the lead was a pack containing Sanchez, Knibb, Simmonds, Pohle, and Derron. Matthews and Gentle exited the water 44 seconds down, with Findlay one minute behind.

As athletes streamed into T1, only one minute separated Perez Sala in first and Findlay in 20th, with seven of the sport’s top-10 ranked cyclists in between. Would it be a battle of the bikes, or would Knibb – widely regarded as one of the best cyclists in middle-distance racing – dominate as she had the past two years?

2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship women’s results: Bike Taylor Knibb takes the lead early in the bike leg of the 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship. (Photo: Fiona Goodall/Ironman)

Perez Sala’s lead was erased almost immediately, with Knibb easily moving to the front in the first two miles of the bike course. Simmonds followed suit, riding into second place by mile five. Perez Sala was then swallowed up by a hard-charging pack of 10 – including Gentle, Derron, Wilms, Pohle, Matthews, and Findlay – working together to hold Knibb to a manageable gap.

But as the group moved over the early rolling climbs of the one-loop course, confident bike handlers like Matthews, Findlay, and Sanchez broke away. Matthews was the first to catch Simmonds near the 12-mile marker, and the two began to take turns in the second-place position. Their combined work was enough to drop Findlay and Sanchez, but it wasn’t enough to bridge the gap to the front. In fact, Knibb was making it look easy as she banked time on the competition. Twelve miles in, she was up 1:25; by mile 25, her lead extended to 1:42; at the halfway point, she had an advantage of more than two minutes.

While Matthews and Simmonds continued working together behind Knibb, Findlay and Sanchez were re-joined by Gentle, Derron, Pohle, and Wilms at the 25-mile marker, just over three minutes off the front. Further back – almost five minutes from Knibb – were Laura Madsen (DNK), who pedaled her way from 29th out of the swim to 13th by the halfway point; and Ellie Salthouse (AUS), who moved from 22nd out of the swim to 14th. The duo absorbed Hannah Berry (NZL), who had spent much of the first half of the bike leg solo, then continued on to bridge up with the Gentle-Derron-Findlay pack.

The chase pack grew stronger in the second half of the bike leg, but so did Knibb. When the defending champion crested the longest climb of the course at mile 50, her lead had grown to 4:26 over Matthews and Simmonds and more than 7:26 over the chase pack. After descending into Taupo, Knibb clocked in with a 4:39 lead over Simmonds, 4:52 over Matthews, and more than eight minutes over Derron, Pohle, Findlay, and Gentle.

2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship women’s results: Run Ashleigh Gentle unleashed her trademark run speed to take third at the 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship. (Photo: Fiona Goodall/Ironman)

With such a dominant lead, it was clear the race playing out behind Knibb was no longer for the win, but for valuable Ironman Pro Series points. The series format, which employs an “every second counts” scoring system, deducts one point for every second an athlete finishes behind a race winner.

This was evident in the early miles of the run, where Matthews clocked 6:06 min/mi splits to Knibb’s 6:10 min/mi – a small difference, but enough to chip away at the lead for the first time since T1. By the halfway point, Matthews had taken back one minute out of Knibb’s lead; by mile 8, another minute.

Also making moves were Derron, Gentle, and Findlay, who were well-positioned off the bike to catch a fading Simmonds for third place. Gentle, the number-one ranked runner in the sport, ran 6:06 min/mi splits to make the pass just after mile 9.

As the podium firmed up in the final miles, Knibb pushed on to the finish line, breaking the tape in 3:57:34. An elated Matthews surged in at 3:58:49 (and a day-best run split of 1:15:34), while Gentle crossed in third at 4:03:01, Simmonds fourth at 4:05:12, and Derron fifth in 4:06:02.

Kat Matthews (L), Taylor Knibb (C) and Ashleigh Gentle (R) celebrate on the podium at the 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand. (Photo: Fiona Goodall/Ironman) 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship women’s results: Top 10

For the full results, visit Ironman’s race tracker.

1. Taylor Knibb (USA) 3:57:34 2. Kat Matthews (GBR) 3:58:49 3. Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) 4:03:01 4. Imogen Simmonds (CHE) 4:05:12 5. Julie Derron (CHE) 4:06:02 6. Paula Findlay (CAN) 4:07:12 7. Ellie Salthouse (AUS) 4:07:48 8. Caroline Pohle (DEU) 4:08:06 9. Tamara Jewett (CAN) 4:08:47 10. Grace Thek (AUS) 4:09:08 Post-race reactions from top finishers at the 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship Taylor Knibb

“I think I dragged the whole women’s field off course [on the swim]. Julie told me because I breathed to the right, I overcompensated a lot, and then all of a sudden, the first buoy was 100 meters…I think I over-rode a little bit on the bike. The run course was amazing because everyone was supporting you. I don’t think there was a step on the run course where you didn’t have people supporting you and cheering, and it was like, ‘Wow, this is an impressive community.’”

“I’m very tired, it’s very hot, it’s a bit of a relief in a lot of ways, but I’m very grateful and I think it’s really cool that for the 70.3 [world champs] each one has been a drastically different course on a different continent.”

Kat Matthews

“I’m really proud. I can’t believe how well – obviously how well Taylor was again, and she’s just incredible – but the whole women’s field really pulled it together out there.”

“I did want this and I did expect that I could do this, otherwise I wouldn’t have aimed for this ridiculous goal to do all these series and these two world championships, but to come second in both. I’m over the moon today.”

Ashleigh Gentle

“I was a little bit down coming out of the water. I transitioned and did the first part of the bike, but I had some big regrets not long after I burned some matches super early. Obviously, the first part of the course is really tough, so I kind of got into my rhythm. The dynamics, I was in big groups, there’s a lot of yo-yoing and just trying to make sure we space apart legally. It was a really rough day out there. Thankfully I found my rhythm on the run finally.”