Great Britain’s Kat Matthews won silver in the Ironman World Championship in Nice, behind race-winner Laura Philipp.

Matthews and Philipp, of Germany, were leading the field after a 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike leg.

They were level at the start of the 26.2-mile run but Philipp, who was third in last year’s race, proved the stronger as she pulled away and finished in eight hours 45 minutes 15 seconds.

Matthews struggled on parts of the run, slowing to a walk during parts of it, but recovered to hold on to second place with a time of 8:53:20.

Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay won the 2023 event in Hawaii but could not defend the title because of injury.