Kat Matthews raring to chase T100 Ibiza title after Ironman silver finish

By Lucy Wilde, Sportsbeat

Kat Matthews blazed to a silver finish in the Ironman World Championships in Nice but less than a week later she’s chasing the chance to climb the T100 rankings as the series heads to Spain.

As part of the Ironman, Matthews completed a full marathon - a feat most would view as deserving of a good break - but she’s of the ‘no rest for the wicked’ mentality as she eyes up a strong race in Ibiza.

The 33-year-old sits in sixth in the world rankings for the three-discipline event, but just three points separate her and fellow Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay in third, adding yet more incentive to perform.

“It was always part of the plan to go to Nice and then Ibiza,” she said. “The physical turnaround could be a challenge but mentally I always knew this was coming.

“Any triathlon gives you a certain level of fatigue - the Ironman in Nice was so long and challenging - a nine hour race obviously means there’s going to be a drop off in performance, but I think I’m more mentally ready to fight because of a second place finish than if I had won.

“It’s all about trying to recover as efficiently as possible from a longer distance race,” she added. “I feel very confident in my ability to listen to my body and adapt my training to build my body back to strength.”

The army veteran has a history of pushing the pain barrier - no more evident than in Nice when she overcame crippling leg cramps to hold onto a silver finish - but is crucially just as tough mentally.

“It’s never easy going into a race knowing you’re not at your best but at the same time I’ve done that a few times this year and already exceeded my expectations,” she said.

“I think I have a good level of optimism and realism - realism being that this race very obviously could be awful - but optimism wise I know I’m really fit and that I’m mentally ready to work really hard,” she added.

Matthews’ resilient mentality is embodied in her astounding ability to produce gutsy performance after gutsy performance, but even she is not immune to the sting of a silver finish.

“It’s a self-destructive, critical analysis cycle at the moment,” she said. “I’m definitely not in the lessons learnt phase, but I’m exploring the negativity and embracing the emotions of not performing to my best [in the Ironman].

“I think it’s easy to lose when you perform to your absolute best - there have been many races where I’ve been happy to finish second - but that race I don’t think I got everything out of myself which is frustrating.

“With this sport I really believe you can’t plan or expect anything. There’s a lot that comes from good fortune in racing, sometimes there’s no lesson to be learned.”

This year’s T100 season may have crossed the midway point but Australian-born Matthews has no intention of taking her foot off the gas going into the final stretch.

“I want to finish four races, including the Grand Final,” she said. “I planned to come to Ibiza and realistically not perform, but I also didn’t plan to have two excellent results already, so I’m in a better position than I thought I would be in.

“That gives me flexibility to have a lower scoring performance in my race this weekend but I’m really happy with where I’m at. The Grand Final can be a really exciting crescendo.”

Alongside race preparations, Matthews took part in a beach clean up on Figueretas Beach - where the Ibiza T100 event will begin - in support of a local campaign group Plastic Free Ibiza.

“I’m always impressed when local communities take on the wider picture of environmental issues,” she said. “I know recently there’s been some news articles about plastics found in the human brain, so now more than ever I think people are really realising the damage we’re doing,” she added.

“Especially in these small, remote islands, I just can’t imagine. I think if we’ve got time and we’re here then at least we can offset the damage we’re potentially causing ourselves.”

Watch the Ibiza T100 Triathlon races live in Europe on Eurosport 2. Broadcast for the men is from 0745 UK, with the race starting at 0800 and then the women dive in at 1030. Both Ibiza T100 races and behind-the-scenes content can be watched live and for free on PTO+ from anywhere.