Organizations and spectators actually always hope for exciting races, because the more exciting, the more fun to watch. Taylor Knibb had no such thing today at the PTO T100 San Francisco, as the American athlete seemed to come from another planet for the umpteenth time and be far too strong for her competitors.
Beforehand, of course, Knibb was marked as one of the favorites, but names such as Kat Matthews, Paula Findlay, India Lee and, of course, Ashleigh Gentle were also mentioned. Yet none of these women – or any of the other participants – even came close to the unleashed Knibb, who took the lead early on during the bike and then saw her lead grow tremendously fast.
After the swim – completed in just 17:00 minutes due to the strong currents and probably too short a distance – Imogen Simmonds was still in the lead, but Knibb followed 23 seconds later in second place. Already in the first kilometers of the bike she passed Simmonds, and that was also the moment when the race effectively became a one-woman show. What happened behind Knibb seemed hardly relevant, as they were merely supporting roles in a show in which Knibb played the only important role.
When Knibb, who is actually full in preparation for the Olympics and thus has not even trained specifically for the longer distance, arrived in T2, her lead was 4:30 minutes over Matthews, 6:16 minutes over Laura Philipp and 6:38 minutes over Simmonds. Women like Findlay, Emma Pallant-Browne and Lee followed at more than nine minutes, while Gentle was even close to 11 minutes behind.
Those who might have had some hope for an exciting run, somewhere were disappointed; Knibb continued steadily and ran completely unchallenged to victory. She did so in 3:38:01. Kat Matthews finished second in 3:41:48 and Laura Philipp third in 3:45:07.
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