The Ironman World Championship, held in Hawaii, ended with a moment of great emotion and discouragement for North American Taylor Knibb. After more than eight hours of intense effort, the athlete’s body gave in to fatigue just three kilometers from the finish line, when she remained alone in the lead and with the title practically guaranteed.
In a video that went viral, Knibb is seen staggering before sitting on the road, completely exhausted. Shortly after, she was overtaken by Norwegian Solveig Lovseth, who still seemed worried and asked if her opponent was okay before going on to victory, completing the race in 8 hours, 28 minutes and 27 seconds.
Until that moment, Taylor Knibb, two-time Olympic champion and three-times Ironman world champion, maintained an advantage of almost one minute and forty seconds over the second-place finisher. The unexpected withdrawal marked one of the toughest and most emotional scenes of the event.
Remember that Ironman is one of the most demanding races in the world, consisting of 3.8 kilometers of swimming, 180.2 kilometers of cycling and a 42-kilometer marathon to end the challenge.
One of the images from the weekend.
After more than eight hours of competition, Taylor Knibb was about to become Ironman world champion, but she exploded just three kilometers from the end.
Solveig Lovseth passed him and asked him if he was okay before winning.
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte)
