All eyes were on the women as for the first time they were racing on a separate day to the men.
Swim – Charles-Barclay leads the way
Lucy Charles-Barclay looked like she was shot out of the starting cannon as she quickly built a lead over the other athletes. Lauren Brandon, Fenella Langridge, Rebecca Clarke and Pamella Oliveira weren’t able to match her take out speed but were able to limit their losses to the front.
The next pack of chasers included Chelsea Sodaro, Sarah Crowley and Skye Moench. Daniela Ryf wasn’t able to keep with this group and fell back with other contenders Anne Haug and Laura Phillip.
The chop on the water slowed the athletes down over the second half of the swim and this benefitted Charles-Barclay as she was able to stretch her lead to 44 seconds as she came into T1. The Norden/Sodaro/Crowley pack was just under 4 minutes back and the Ryf/Haug/Phillip pack came out of the water 7 minutes back and with lots of work to do.
Bike – Brits breakaway, Ryf fights back
Charles-Barclay was first out on the bike but she lost time through transition to Langridge. This meant Langridge could see her up the road and was able to put in a surge to bridge up, leaving behind Clarke and Brandon. The two Brits worked together to establish a 3 minute lead over the field through 50k.
Norden, Sodaro and Crowley caught Brandon and Clarke with Ryf, Haug and Phillip a further 1:30 back. It was at this point that the race was shook up with Phillip and Crowley getting 5 minute penalties for drafting. This wouldn’t be the end of the penalties as after the turn at Hawi both Clarke and Norden were also hit with 5 minute penalties. With the winds not being as strong as usual, bigger bike packs were able to form and stay together. It only takes a small loss of concentration to drift into the draft zone and the referees were paying close attention to the athletes at the front.
At Hawi Ryf was still 4 minutes back from the two Brits, but it was at this point she started to lay down the power and close in on the groups ahead. Through 130k she had passed Sodaro and Moench as well as dropping Haug. She continued to apply the pressure and caught Charles-Barclay and Langridge around 170k. Ryf surged passed, Charles-Barclay followed while Langridge decided to save her legs for the run.
Ryf came into T2 first, closely followed by Charles-Barclay. Langridge lost a minute over the final 10k. Norden was able to recover from the penalty and come into T2 3 minutes back, joined by Sodaro. With the top 7 athletes within 5:40 of each other this is one of the closest world championship races coming off the bike. To put this into context, in 2019 the gap between first and second off the bike was 8 minutes.
Run – Sodaro shows her class on the run
Charles-Barclay gained time on Ryf through transition and flew past her in the opening kilometre of the run, you could see at this point that Ryf looked laboured. She looked so strong on the bike but she didn’t have the legs coming out on the run. Charles-Barclay continued to build a lead over Ryf however Sodaro was moving up through the field and was running 12 seconds per km quicker than Charles-Barclay.
Sodaro caught Charles-Barclay at 12km and surged into the lead. Sodaro looked a class apart on the run and was even putting time into Anne Haug. Charles-Barclay wasn’t able to respond to Sodaro and the question become if she would be able to stay away from Haug who was 4 minutes back with 30km to run. 10km later Haug had closed to within 1:40 of Charles-Barclay and she looked set to catch her coming back into Kona.
Sodaro continued to outrun the field and through 30km had built a 5 minute lead, you could see her managing the heat taking plenty of ice through the aid stations. The only thing that would stop her from winning at this point was blowing up. With 12km to go Haug had closed to within a minute of Charles-Barclay. Haug got this gap to 20 second but Charles-Barclay was able to hold her off and take second behind Sodaro. Haug rounded out the podium, with Phillip and Norden overcoming their penalties to take 4th and 5th.
Results
Sodaro consistent over the swim and bike and then unleashed a near record setting run. She was in a different league on the run course and looked in control the whole way. She becomes the first mom to win the Ironman World Championship.
- Chelsea Sodaro – 8:33:45
- Lucy Charles-Barclay – 8:41:36
- Anne Haug – 8:42:21
- Laura Phillip – 8:50:30
- Lisa Norden – 8:54:32
Full results available here.
Looking at the potential PTO rankings impact. Anne Haug will leapfrog Daniela Ryf and Ashleigh Gentle to reclaim #1. Based on my current estimates Charles-Barclay and Laura Phillip will remain in the current rankings of 4th and 5th. Chelsea Sodaro is the big mover, climbing from 13th to 6th.
Triathlon Insights 
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