We Noticed: Knibb and Geens Back On Top at T100, Boulder and Happy Valley Results, and Oscar Pistorius Competes at 70.3 Durban

Taylor Knibb. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Remember all the angst after T100 San Francisco when Taylor Knibb competed in a series event and didn’t win? As we reported, the multi-talented American was coming off her second full-distance effort in Texas just a few weeks earlier, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that she wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Swiss Olympic silver medalist Julie Derron took the win in San Francisco, leaving Knibb to “only” finish second.

Things returned to normal in Vancouver on Saturday, though, as Knibb powered away on the bike (although she had some company in the form of Jessica Learmonth) to a huge lead into T2. The American ran away from her British cycling compatriot and was never threatened as she cruised to yet another T100 win. Derron managed to run her way to second Learmonth had an impressive run to hang on for third. That meant that her countrywoman Lucy Charles-Barclay missed the podium for the first time in a T100 event that she finished (she DNF’d in London last year) with her fourth-place finish.

Jelle Geens also managed to avenge his runner-up finish from San Francisco with an impressive run that saw him pull clear of Marten Van Riel, the man who topped the T100 Series last year to take the win by almost a minute. During an interview that aired during the coverage we learned that Geens was so confident that Rico Bogen would fade on the run in San Francisco that he wasn’t too worried about the large gap the German created on the bike. This time around Geens was much more attentive and stayed well within striking distance of the bike leaders to easily run to the front of the race and charge to the win.

Here are a few other things we noticed from Saturday’s race in Vancouver:

• Morgan Pearson had the day’s fastest swim (24:49) and run (57:44) and would eventually finish seventh.
• Sam Long was just under five minutes back of Pearson after the swim and never factored in the race – he would eventually finish 11th, over nine minutes behind Geens.
• A number of the strongest cyclists in the field would end up with one minute penalties that would effectively put them out of the mix including Mika Noodt and Kyle Smith on the men’s side, and Paula Findlay for the women.

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Appleton Shines in Boulder

by Ben Snider-McGrath

While two Americans were dominating the race down under at IRONMAN Cairns, an Aussie was topping the pro-men’s-only race in Boulder. Sam Appleton battled through temperatures in the mid-80s on Saturday as he charged to a commanding win in Boulder, which is his adopted hometown. The Aussie star got the day off to a quick start, completing the 1.2-mile swim in 23:42. This put him in fourth place heading into T1, 14-seconds behind early leader Thomas Gordon, another Boulder local. 

Appleton made his moves early on in the bike, passing the few men in front of him and opening up a sizeable gap in the first 20 miles. He was close to two minutes clear of second place after the first third of the ride, and although American Colin Szuch ate into the lead a bit over the next 30 or so miles, Appleton entered T2 with a healthy gap of 1:13. Third place was another four minutes behind Szuch, so it was really a two-man race at that point. 

For the first few miles, it looked like Szuch could make the race interesting. After leaving transition, Appleton’s lead had grown to 1:21, but five miles into the half-marathon Szuch had the gap to less than a minute. Over the next three miles, however, Appleton pushed the gap back to 1:11, and by the 11.5-mile checkpoint, the lead had exactly doubled to 2:22.

Appleton reached the finish line in 3:35:59, completing the run in 1:15:07. Szuch held on for second place, stopping the clock in 3:38:43, and his fellow American Kevin McDowell joined him on the podium in third place with a final time of 3:40:43. McDowell had one of the best runs of the day (he ran a 1:14 half-marathon), helping him climb to the podium after getting off the bike in eighth place. 

Russell Runs Past Sodaro for Win in Happy Valley

While the men were in Boulder, the pro women’s race on the weekend was IRONMAN 70.3 Pennsylvania. As was to be expected, Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes led the way out of the water (24:16) and followed that up with the day’s fastest bike (2:28:35). The Brazilian would hit T2 with a lead of just under two minutes on Chelsea Sodaro and Grace Alexander, with Jeanni Metzler and Lydia Russell arriving about 90 seconds later.

Once out on the run course, though, Sodaro appeared to be feeling her hard-earned runner-up effort from Eagleman the week before – normally one of the fastest runners in any race she’s in, the 2022 IRONMAN world champ was passed by Russell, who flew through the day’s fastest run (1:16:28) to take the win in 4:16:45. Sodaro’s 1:21:45 run split was enough to get her second (4:20:20), with Jeanni Metzler rounding out the podium (4:23:00) ahead of Lopes (4:23:46) and Alexander (4:23:58).

Oscar Pistorius Competes at Durban 70.3 Twelve Years After Murdering Girlfriend

by Sarah Kim Bonner

We’re a bit late on this one, but here’s something we noticed from last weekend. Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius competed in Durban 70.3 12 years after shooting his girlfriend at their home in Pretoria, South Africa.

The South African, famously known as “The Blade Runner” for running with dual carbon leg prosthetics, competed at three Paralympics, winning six gold medals between 2004 and 2012. After campaigning to compete with able-bodied athletes, in 2012 he became the first amputee track sprinter to compete at the Olympics where he competed in the team relay and made it to the semi-finals in the 400 meters.

A year later, the 26-year-old shot and killed his 29-year-old girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, firing multiple times at her through a closed toilet door. The case drew global attention and, although he maintains he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder and launched appeals to overturn court decisions, he was eventually convicted of murder by the South African Supreme Court of Appeal and sentenced to 13 years and 5 months in prison. 

After serving nine of those years, Pistorius was released from Atteridgevill Correctional Centre on 5 January 2024. He is on parole until 2029. 

As reported by Reuters, according to South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services, Pistorius had approval to compete in Durban 70.3. 

His first public sports event since his conviction, Pistorius finished third in the “physically challenged” category, 451st male, and 555th overall. He clocked a 43:42 swim, a 3:02 bike, and 1:57 run for a total time of 5:56:28. 

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