Bahrain Victorious 13 Team

Bahrain Victorious 13 team at the T100 Triathlon London

Kat Matthews snatched up another podium for the Bahrain Victorious 13 team at the T100 Triathlon London this weekend, a home race for the British star, writes Lisa Pringle.

Backing up from her win over the Ironman distance at Vitoria-Gasteiz just two weeks ago, Matthews built into her bronze medal finish through a 9th-place two-kilometre swim, then a measured approach on the eight-lap 80-kilometre cycle course to make the bike-to-run transition in fourth. She held strong through most of the 18-kilometre run in a duel with Laura Philipp to pip the German across the finish line, to the applause of family and friends who came to support her.

“I actually owe my performance to Laura; she was excellent all day,” said Matthews. “I feel like we have an ongoing battle both at T100 and the long-distance scene and it is really exciting to race… At no point in the day did I think ‘I can’t do this’. I just kept seeing another face, another family member, a best friend, all who had come a long way to support me and that kept me going. In fact, it felt like everyone was supporting me out there today. The only thing in my mind was I had to finish having given absolutely everything. I had a horrible day but I’m so proud!”

The men’s race held the following day saw Alistair Brownlee and Max Neumann line up, the latter on the comeback trail from injury that has kept him off starting lists for over a year since he won the PTO Open in Ibiza.

In typical fashion, Brownlee started hot in front with a swim just off by seven seconds to the leader and pushed the pace in the front group on the bike before falling casualty to a slashed tyre wall. He soldiered on after resolving the mechanical which cost him six minutes, taking only 39 seconds through the bike-to-run transition and running himself into an 8th-place finish. Neumann knocked off the rust to finish 19th.

This week will see five Bahrain Victorious 13 athletes racing Olympic individual and mixed relay triathlon events on an iconic course in Paris: Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA), Georgia Taylor-Brown and Kate Waugh (GBR), Henri Schoeman (RSA), and Hayden Wilde (NZL).