Kimberley Morrison

Kimberley Morrison showed her competitive spirit right from the earliest years of her life. Quite simply, she had to.

The Norfolk-based triathlete spent a good portion of those early days at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London due to heart problems.

At the age of 3 Kimberley was strong enough for the complex open-heart surgery she needed. The operation was a success, and she has never looked back since.

Morrison was always focused on sport and made a real success of triathlon during her school days. But for a while it was hockey which took the driving seat in her sporting career, from Loughborough University through to Teddington Hockey Club.

Eventually Kimberley committed to triathlon, and the decision has proved to be a good one. She represented Great Britain at both the World Triathlon Championships and the World Duathlon Championships, before winning the 2014 European AG 25-29 Triathlon in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

The transition to the professional ranks now looked an obvious one, and Kimberley took the big step in late 2015. The wisdom of the switch was proved in 2016 when she claimed her first IRONMAN 70.3 title in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She also set a bike course record in the process.

Morrison claimed victory at 70.3 Texas the following year, once again showing her superb cycling prowess with yet another bike course record. She also took part in the 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga and finished 18th.

The 2018 campaign brought further 70.3 glory with a win in Finland (and yet another bike course record).

Kimberley also began the step up to full IRONMAN distance in late 2017 with a fifth in Barcelona, and then claimed top-10 finishes in Texas (eighth) and Kalmar (fourth) in 2018.

She continued at the full distance in 2019 with top-10 finishes in Texas and Tallinn, while also taking second at Challenge Herning and sixth at Challenge Salou over middle distance.

After missing Kona qualification by just 29 seconds in Texas, that third place in Tallinn gave Kimberley a spot in Hawaii for the World Championship for the first time, where she finished 26th.