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Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez(MEX) And Kat Matthews (GBR) VIctorious at 2024 Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas

By: IRONMAN Public Relations

| Published 04/27/2024

Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX) with a time of 7:42:38 was the men's winner of the 2024 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN North American Championship Texas triathlon, part of the VinFast IRONMAN North America Series (Photo by Kyle Rivas / Getty Images for IRONMAN)

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- The Lone Star state and The Woodlands, Texas played host to the 2024 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN® North American Championship Texas, part of the VinFast IRONMAN North America Series, doubling as the second event of the IRONMAN Pro Series™, on April 27. In the first full-distance IRONMAN triathlon of the IRONMAN Pro Series, history was made as Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX) stormed to victory in a time of 07:42:38, and Kat Matthews overcame a five-minute penalty to take the tape in a staggering 8:42:22.

With Rodriguez Hernandez’s outstanding day, he becomes the first Mexican pro triathlete to win an IRONMAN event and also qualify for the IRONMAN World Championship.

“It’s the best race for me, of my career, this was one of my biggest goals of the year I want to go to Kona – I want to go to Kona. I am really happy,” said Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez.

Overcoming adversity from early in the season, Matthews stayed focused on the end goal.

“It was great – it was good enough to take the win. I didn’t really think I would get to complete the entire race to be honest. I’ve had an interesting and very optimistic build after suffering injury seven weeks ago so I didn’t really know what the run would hold and I committed so well to the swim and the bike I can’t really believe it, a [personal best] really, significantly better than last year. I am internally proud and externally grateful for that experience. And the girls in second and third, Penny (Slater) and Lotte (Wilms), they pushed me all day. There was something about returning as last year’s winner – it felt like the entire crowd was cheering for me. I am grateful for everyone cheering for me,” said Kat Matthews.

Top Five Female Professional Results

Place

1 Kat Matthews Country:GBR Swim 55:52 Bike 4:41:46 Run: 3:00:15 Total Time: 8:42:22

2 Penny Slater Country: AUS Swim:59:36 Bike:4:39:39 Run:3:01:15 Total Time:8:44:36

3 Lotte Wilms Country: NLD Swim:51:49 Bike:4:40:58 Run: 3:09:49 Total Time:8:46:59

4 Hannah Berry Country:NZL Swim:55:40 Bike:4:41:48 Run:3:09:06 Total Time: 8:50:50

5 Alice Alberts Country: USA Swim: 57:19 Bike:4:41:23 Run:3:10:24 Total Time:8:53:33

Top Five Male Professional Results

Place

1 Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez Country: MEX Swim:49:03 Bike:4:14:54 Run:2:34:14 Total Time:7:42:38

2 Patrick Lange Country: DEU Swim:49:02 Bike:4:16:09 Run:2:35:15 Total Time: 7:44:14

3 Clément Mignon Country: FRA Swim: 51:40 Bike: 4:06:40 Run: 2:44:37 Total Time: 7:48:37

4 Matthew Marquardt Country:USA Swim:48:10 Bike:4:03:23 Run:2:53:33 Total Time:7:49:10

5 Robert Kallin Country: SWE Swim:49:11 Bike: 4:03:31 Run: 2:54:15 Total Time: 7:51:25

The 2024 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN North American Championship Texas, part of the VinFast IRONMAN North America Series, saw nearly 90 professional athletes toe the start line as well as approximately 2,700 age group athletes. The event offered a professional prize purse of $175,000 USD and six female professional and six male professional qualifying slots to the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship, the women’s race taking place in Nice, France on Sept. 22, and the men’s race taking place in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i on Oct. 26. Following two events of the IRONMAN Pro Series, it is really showing that Every Second Matters with fast racing and close finish times creating drama and excitement.

News and Notes

Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX) makes history as first ever Mexican professional to win an IRONMAN triathlon, as well as being the first Mexican professional to qualify for the IRONMAN World Championship
Rodriguez Hernandez had done one IRONMAN prior (IRONMAN Cozumel, 2023), where he finished 8th.
Rodriguez Hernandez ran a course best run of 2:34:14, beating Matt Hanson’s time (2:34:39) in 2018 by 25 seconds.
Kat Matthews ran a 3:00:15 marathon to record the fastest run time of all the pro females.
Florian Angert (DEU) and Lauren Brandon (USA) officially recorded the fast swim times of 48:06 and 51:46 respectively.
The fastest T1 of the day was from Fenella Langridge (GBR) in a speedy 1 minute and 52 seconds
Matthew Marquardt (USA) recorded the fastest bike time of the men’s pro field with a time of 4:03:23. Penny Slater (AUS) was the fastest on the bike for the females with a time of 4:39:39.
Of the top 10 in the men’s and women’s professional field, United States had the most athletes with 6. Australia, Great Britain, and Germany all had 2 while Mexico, France, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, New Zealand, Denmark and Netherlands all had 1 each.
Kat Matthews (GBR) repeats as Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas champion; in the process claims her fourth overall full-distance IRONMAN triathlon victory.
A total of 89 Professional triathletes started the race with 32 male pros and 25 female pros finishing fast enough behind the race winner to earn points towards IRONMAN Pro Series standings.
Of the two IRONMAN Pro Series events, 77 males and 34 females have finished fast enough to earn points towards the end of the IRONMAN Pro Series total.

Full results for the 2024 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN North American Championship Texas, part of the VinFast IRONMAN North America Series can be found at www.ironman.com/im-texas-results. For additional event information, please visit www.ironman.com/im-texas.

IRONMAN Pro Series Standings

The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series that will see professional triathletes earn points at 20 select races in 19 locations globally. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters™ with every second behind the race winner equating to a point earned or lost. How it works can be found here.

Victories for Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez and Kat Matthews ensured both athletes walked away with the maximum IRONMAN Pro Series points available for a full-distance IRONMAN triathlon of 5,000.

With strong performances today, Fenella Langridge (GBR) and Patrick Lange (DEU), now sit at the top of the IRONMAN Pro Series standings, having also collected points at Athletic Brewing IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside triathlon earlier this month.

IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Female (After Two Events)

Rank Name Country IRONMAN Texas Points Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Points

1 Fenella Langridge GBR 4,018 5,593

2 Kat Matthews GBR 5,000 5,000

3 Danielle Lewis USA 3,385 4,969

4 Penny Slater AUS 4,866 4,866

5 Lotte Wilms NED 4,723 4,723

IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Male

Rank Name Country IRONMAN Texas Points Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Points

1 Patrick Lange DEU 4,904 6,519

2 Matt Hanson USA 4,174 5,884

3 Chris Leiferman USA 4,025 5,848

4 Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez MEX 5,000 5,582

5 Andre Lopes BRA 3,586 5,245

Full IRONMAN Pro Series standings can be found at proseries.ironman.com.

IRONMAN Pro Series Event Prize Money

In addition to the IRONMAN Pro Series’ $1.7M year-end bonus prize pool, there is a per-event pro prize purse payout of $2,575,000, distributed across IRONMAN Pro Series events. To date the IRONMAN Pro Series has paid out a total of $225,000 USD. Over $2.3-million USD remains to be claimed at the remaining events.

Top Five Female Prize Money Earned (After two events)

Rank Name Country IRONMAN Texas Prize Money Total Prize Money

1 Kat Matthews GBR $28,000 $28,000

2 Penny Slater AUS $17,500 $17,500

3 Lotte Wilms NED $11,000 $11,000

4 Hannah Berry NZL $8,500 $8,500

5 Taylor Knibb USA $0 $7,500

Top Five Male Prize Money Earned (After two events)

Rank Name Country IRONMAN Texas Prize Money Total Prize Money

1 Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez MEX $28,000 $28,000

2 Patrick Lange DEU $17,500 $17,500

3 Clément Mignon FRA $11,000 $11,000

4 Matthew Marquardt USA $8,500 $8,500

5 Lionel Sanders CAN $0 $7,500

Next Events Coming Up

The 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series continues to heat up, with racing in the Greater Zion region of Utah for the Intermountain Health IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship St. George on May 4 up next.

Replay coverage of racing at the 2024 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN North American Championship Texas, part of the VinFast IRONMAN North America Series is available on Outside+ for those watching from the United States and Canada; and for the rest of the world on proseries.ironman.com or IRONMAN’s YouTube Page

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