Most athletes were kicking off their season in Oceanside and it was set to be an exciting race with some great head to head battles and the return of Kat Matthews.

Swim – Lawrence breaks away

Due to water temperature the swim course was changed to be all in the harbour and a deep water start. Holly Lawrence was quick off the start line and charged away from the rest of the field. Paula Findlay and Chelsea Sodaro swam together with a small gap to Kat Matthews and Tamara Jewett. By the end of the swim Matthews and Jewett had closed the gap to Findlay and Sodaro and the group came out of the water with a 1:29 deficit to Lawrence.

Lawrence extended her lead through T1 and Jewett came out of T1 in 2nd place with the others following close.

Bike – Leaders stick together

Findlay set the pace on the bike with Matthews, Jewett and Sodaro all sitting in. Through 20k this group had taken 40 seconds out of Lawrence’s lead, with the gap reducing to 59 seconds. This group continued to close the gap to Lawrence and they caught her around halfway through the bike.

Over the final 30k Matthews moved to the front of the race to set the pace and Jewett was hit with a 30 second penalty for blocking. This disconnected her from the leaders and she lost further time over the final stages of the bike. She came into T2 1:14 back from the leaders. The front group of Matthews, Lawrence, Findlay and Sodaro came into T2 together, with Matthews setting the fastest split of the day.

Run – Jewett breaks records

Matthews and Lawrence left T2 together and Matthews moved to the front and started to edge away from her fellow Brit. Her lead didn’t last for long as Sodaro moved up to the front of the race and began to build a lead over Matthews and Lawrence. Through the first 3.5km Findlay had fallen back and Jewett was running the fastest on course, already reducing her deficit to 46 seconds.

Jewett continued to reduce the gap to Sodaro and moved past Matthews and Lawrence over the next 3km. Sodaro was running well but Jewett caught her by 12km and broke away. She continued to set a blistering pace to build a lead of Sodaro. She went on to run 1:13:00 which is the fastest ever IM 70.3 run split, beating her own record of 1:13:08.

Results

Jewett produced a strong swim, bike combination that set her up to take the win on the run. Chelsea Sodaro was the only athlete to run within 5 minutes of Jewett’s run split.

A seriously impressive return to racing for Kat Matthews. I am looking forward to what she can do at IM Texas in 3 weeks time.

1. Tamara Jewett – 4:08:09
2. Chelsea Sodaro – 4:09:31
3. Kat Matthews – 4:12:27
4. Holly Lawrence – 4:16:32
5. Paula Findlay – 4:21:52

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