{"id":10274,"date":"2026-03-07T14:33:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T07:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=10274"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:33:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T07:33:41","slug":"matthews-sets-course-record-foley-claims-mens-triathlon-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/matthews-sets-course-record-foley-claims-mens-triathlon-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthews sets course record; Foley claims men’s triathlon title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2026 IRONMAN Pro Series has kicked off in style, with the New Zealand triathlon delivering one of its most dramatic editions yet, as Briton Kat Matthews stormed to a new women’s course best time and American Trevor Foley charged through the marathon to claim his second victory.

With victory, Matthews and Foley claim US$18,000 in prize money and qualification to this year’s World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i \u2013 one of the eight total slots on offer to professional athletes at this race.
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In the women’s race, Matthews broke the tape in 8:28:55, setting a new women’s course best time. New Zealand’s Hannah Berry was second in 8:35:43, nearly seven minutes behind Matthews, with Lotte Wilms of the Netherlands rounding out the podium in 8:39:57.

“It’s a really good benchmark, in terms of performance over the series, 5,000 points to start the year is already positive,” said Matthews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The energy on the run course is incredible. Even two kilometres in, I’m welling up. Everyone’s so excited and so positive and so enthusiastic, I was thinking, ‘guys, calm down, please, I’ve got three hours to go.’ I felt like I couldn’t give back as much as I wanted to because everyone was screaming. You have to find a bit of a flow in your own head space for the majority of it until you can really embrace it all, I was carried along by so many people, I was so grateful.”

The day unfolded with a swim course setting to rival any in the world \u2013 the vast Lake Taup\u014d set to the backdrop of mountains peeking through the clouds \u2013 as Fenella Langridge of Great Britain led the field out of the water in 50:51, closely followed by Wilms, Rebecca Clarke of New Zealand, and Berry. Matthews exited 2:39 down from the leaders.
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The bike leg brought the first major shake\u2011up. Early leader Berry suffered a dropped chain that forced her to stop and remedy, allowing Wilms and Clarke to ride through. Matthews, however, was the day’s early aggressor, surging to the front around the 35km mark \u2013 earlier than many expected \u2013 and forming a powerful trio with Berry and Wilms through the majority of the 180km course. Berry entered T2 first after a 4:40:38 ride, with Matthews six seconds behind and Wilms thirteen seconds down \u2013 setting up a run showdown among the day’s most consistent performers.
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But once the marathon began, Matthews immediately went to work. Within 5km she had already put more than a minute into Berry, and by the halfway point at 21km she had extended her advantage to over four minutes, with Wilms seven minutes behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthews continued to apply pressure all the way to the finish, ultimately breaking the tape in 8:28:55 \u2014 a new women’s course best that was more than ten minutes faster than Chelsea Sodaro’s (USA) previous mark set in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trevor Foley (Photo Ironman Pro Series)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


On the men’s side, the stage had been set for Olympic champion and World Champion Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway to blitz the rest of the field \u2013 but in triathlon racing, scripts are rarely followed. Instead, it was Trevor Foley who stole the show to win in 7:46:44.\u00a0
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Behind Foley, Pierre Le Corre of France had a triathlon debut to remember to finish second in 7:48:26, just one minute and 42 seconds away from the win, with another American athlete Matt Hanson completing the podium in 7:50:39.

“The race was nuts,” said Foley. “The swim was beautiful, as a weaker swimmer, a calm swim was nice for me. The bike was great, it was rolling, hard enough, but not super hard. Then on the run, I’m not going to speak for anyone else, but I definitely seemed liked the crowd favourite. I had a lot of ‘Merica’s and Foley’s out there. It was literally every person, and it was just firing me up.”

Local favourite Kyle Smith dominated the early stages of the race, only for the marathon to completely transform the leaderboard. France’s Pierre Le Corre led out of the water in 48:11, followed tightly by fellow Kiwis Robert Huisman and Sam Osborne (NZL) as well as Smith,. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming out more than a minute behind were key contenders including Fred Funk of Germany, Blummenfelt, and Mike Phillips of New Zealand. Foley exited 3:59 down.
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Early on the bike, Blummenfelt suffered a major equipment issue, losing an aerobar extension grip \u2013 a setback which likely impacted the rest of his day. Out front, Smith surged aggressively, building nearly a five\u2011minute lead by 90km. Behind him, Foley was carving through the field as one of the fastest movers, while Funk, Blummenfelt, Phillips, and Le Corre grouped together on the return to Taup\u014d.
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Smith entered T2 first, laying down a 4:11:55 bike, with Funk 3:39 back and a tightly bunched group of Blummenfelt, Phillips, Foley, and Le Corre sitting six minutes down. The marathon immediately delivered fireworks. Hanson set an early pace while Jack Moody of New Zealand surged through the top ten, and Blummenfelt battled visibly, stopping to vomit but continuing on.
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By 19km, Smith’s lead had dropped under five minutes and around 23km, the Kiwi was forced to stop briefly with cramp, opening the door for the chase. At 28km, Foley made the decisive pass on Smith and never looked back.
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Behind him, Le Corre and Hanson continued to move strongly, both passing Smith on the run \u2014 Hanson first, followed by Le Corre. At 33km, Le Corre closed Foley’s lead to just over thirty seconds, but the American found another gear after running side\u2011by\u2011side for nearly a kilometre with women’s race leader Matthews \u2013 a moment that energised both athletes.
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Foley powered home to take victory in 7:46:44, just over a minute slower than Phillips’ course best from 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Five Female Professional Results \u2013 IRONMAN New Zealand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Place<\/strong> <\/td>Name (Country)<\/strong> <\/td>Swim<\/strong> <\/td>Bike<\/strong> <\/td>Run<\/strong> <\/td>Total Time<\/strong> <\/td>Pro Series Points (unofficial)<\/strong> <\/td>Event Prize Money<\/strong> USD<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
1 <\/td>Kat Matthews (GBR)<\/td> 
00:53:30 <\/td>		04:38:01 <\/td>02:51:48 <\/td>08:28:55 <\/td> 
5,000 <\/td>		$18,000 <\/td><\/tr>
2 <\/td>Hannah Berry (NZL)<\/td> 
00:50:56 <\/td>		04:40:38 <\/td>02:58:12 <\/td>08:35:43 <\/td> 
4,592<\/td>		$11,500 <\/td><\/tr>
3 <\/td>Lotte Wilms (NLD)<\/td>00:50:53 <\/td>04:40:42 <\/td>03:02:19 <\/td>08:39:57 <\/td>4,338<\/td>$9,000 <\/td><\/tr>
4 <\/td>Tamara Jewett (CAN)<\/td>00:54:15 <\/td>04:57:47 <\/td>02:42:40 <\/td>08:41:20 <\/td>4,255<\/td>$6,000<\/td><\/tr>
5 <\/td>Danielle Lewis (USA)<\/td>01:02:04 <\/td>04:42:11 <\/td>02:59:19 <\/td>08:49:35 <\/td>3,760<\/td>$5,000 <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Top Five Male Professional Results \u2013 IRONMAN New Zealand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Place<\/strong> <\/td>Name (Country)<\/strong> <\/td>Swim<\/strong> <\/td>Bike<\/strong> <\/td>Run<\/strong> <\/td>Total Time<\/strong> <\/td>Pro Series Points (unofficial)<\/strong> <\/td>Event Prize Money<\/strong> USD<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
1 <\/td>Trevor Foley (USA)<\/td>00:52:07 <\/td>04:14:15 <\/td>02:35:42 <\/td>07:46:44 <\/td>5,000 <\/td>$18,000 <\/td><\/tr>
2 <\/td>Pierre Le Corre (FRA)<\/td> 00:48:11 <\/td>04:18:27 <\/td>02:36:18 <\/td>07:48:26 <\/td>4,898<\/td>$11,500 <\/td><\/tr>
3 <\/td>Matt Hanson (USA)<\/td> 00:49:57 <\/td>04:20:42 <\/td>2:34:49 <\/td>07:50:39 <\/td>4,765<\/td>$9,000 <\/td><\/tr>
4 <\/td>Jack Moody (NZL)<\/td> 00:49:58 <\/td>04:18:10 <\/td>02:37:39 <\/td>07:51:03 <\/td>4,741<\/td>$6,000<\/td><\/tr>
5 <\/td>Mike Phillips (NZL)<\/td>00:49:55 <\/td>04:16:01 <\/td>02:46:54 <\/td>07:58:09 <\/td>4,315<\/td>$5,000 <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 IRONMAN Pro Series has kicked off in style, with the New Zealand triathlon delivering one of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[35,36],"class_list":["post-10274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-ironman","tag-triathlon"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kat-Matthews-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10278,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10274\/revisions\/10278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}