Anyone who had doubts that Taylor Knibb might be taking on too much as she prepares for her second Olympic appearance in Paris this summer will have to put those aside based on her incredible performance at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside today. After qualifying for the Olympic team at the Paris Test Event last year, Knibb turned her sights to defending her Ironman 70.3 World Championship (which she did in dominating fashion), then competed in her first full-distance race at the Ironman World Championship in Kona (pictured above), where she took fourth.
While it might have seemed like a strange way to prepare for the Olympics, Knibb appears to be well on track based on her impressive performance at the first race in the Ironman Pro Series.
The only time Knibb wasn’t in the lead of the race was in the water – she trailed one of the pre-race favourites, Fenella Langridge, by a couple of seconds heading to T2, with the rest of the race favourites at least a minute behind.
From there the day became the Taylor Knibb show. By the 20 km timing point Knibb was already over a minute ahead of Langridge, with Canadian Paula Findlay in third, 2:45 back. By the end of the bike the lead was up to 10:42 on Findlay, with Langridge and Great Britain’s Emma Pallant-Browne within a couple of minutes of the Canadian starting the run.
Knibb continued her domination of the day through the run, taking the win in 4:09:55, almost 12 minutes ahead of Findlay, who finished second. (Emma Pallant-Brown passed Findlay on the run and would cross the line in second, but was later disqualified – reportedly for excessive speed in one of the speed-restricted areas of the bike course.)
Australia’s Grace Thek would take the final podium spot in 4:23:16, over 13 minutes behind Knibb.
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