Originally published at: Head to Head: Can Matthew Marquardt Win the IRONMAN Pro Series - Slowtwitch News
Matthew Marquardt at the pre-race press conference in Taupo. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
Leave it to an Ohio State medical student to have all the numbers dialled in. At Thursday’s press conference here in Taupo for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, Matthew Marquardt explained exactly how the winner of the IRONMAN Pro Series will be decided at Sunday’s race. If he and Gregory Barnaby are both within 8:43 of the winner, whoever crosses the line first will take the US$200,000 first prize. If they are both more than 8:43 behind the winner, Barnaby will remain in first place in the overall standings.
All of which sets up an extremely exciting “race within a race” on Sunday for the 27-year-old, who somehow manages to balance life as a pro triathlete with his studies at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and research at the OSU James Comprehensive Cancer Center.
While Barnaby padded his chances with an extra 70.3 race in Western Australia (which he won), Marquardt skipped that race in order to spend time with family for Thanksgiving.
“The Pro series is a big reason why I came to this race,” Marquardt said in an interview after Thursday’s press conference here in Taupo. “I start clinical rotations in about three weeks, and that’ll be a huge shift for me in terms of how I balance my time with school and with training. So, I originally did not want to come to this race because it’s so late in the season, but with how the Pro Series was shaping up, it was very clear that it was going to be a necessary thing to do in order to compete for the title. It literally is going to come down to a winner take all scenario. Hopefully that will make very exciting viewing for everyone else, because there’s really, especially for the men, two races going on. There’s the race for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, and then there’s the race between me and Gregory.”
In June I wasn’t the only person at the IRONMAN 70.3 Mont-Tremblant press conference who was surprised to learn that Marquardt had never done a professional 70.3 race before. (He would eventually finish third.) Marquardt had competed over the distance during his short, but impressive age-group career, which included winning his age group in Kona in 2022, then taking third in his age group at the 70.3 worlds in St. George a few weeks later. He would then turn pro, and focussed on full-distance races during his rookie year in 2023, which included podium finishes at IRONMAN Texas (third) and IRONMAN Coeur d’Alene (second) before finishing 11th in Nice and third again at IRONMAN Florida.
So why all the fulls?
“I think, based on how my metabolism works and everything, the longer distance is what suits me best, which is why we focused on that,” he said. “But, with the Pro Series, we obviously needed to put together some 70.3s as well. So, I think there’s a lot of unknowns exactly how it’ll play out. I did well at Mont-Tremblant racing against Lionel (Sanders), which was definitely a really good learning experience, which provides some confidence. I know what I can do in training and hopefully that’ll translate into the race and I’ll put together a good showing.”