Bozzone, Sidall take Wins at Ironman New Zealand

By Wires March 5, 2018

0 Comments

Terenzo Bozzone can finally savour victory in Ironman New Zealand.

After five podium finishes between 2009 and 2015, Bozzone raised his arms on his rivals as champion after winning in a record race time in Taupo on Saturday.

Laura Sidall (GBR) used the strength of her women’s best bike and run split to win her 2nd ironman-distance victory over Kiwi Teresa Adam and defending champion Jocelyn McCauley (USA).

Men’s Race

Kiwi Dylan McNeice swam a blistering split at 45:54, breaking away from a 5-man chase pack that includes fellow countrymen Mike Philips (49:03), Guy Crawford (49:06) and Bozzone (49:11).

By the first 45km of the bike leg, defending champion Braden Currie withdrew on account of a flu. Phillips, Lachlan Kerin and McNeice led by 2:40 over a chase group that includes Bozzone, Callum Millward and Cyril Viennot, while Brown and Joe Skipper of Great Britain trailed by 4 minutes.

By the halfway point, a new lead pack has emerged that is composed of Skipper, Bozzone, Kerin and Philips.

Entering T2, a new race course record of a 4:19:14 bike split has been set by Skipper. But still trailed six seconds back of Bozzone (4:22:06 bike split), 5 minutes ahead of Phillips, 9 minutes ahead of McNeice and Cochrane, and 11 minutes ahead of Cam Brown.

After a second-best 2:44:17 run, Bozzone finally grabbed a home country Ironman win in 7:59:57 with a 5:36 margin of victory over Skipper (2:49:47 run split) and 7:13 over 3rd place Brown, who finished with a 2:41:56 marathon, second only to Matt Hanson’s 2016 race record 2:41:19 split.

“Everyone was telling me ‘this is your time, your year’, but it’s happened to me a few times when I’m off the bike first [and don’t finish first].” said Terenzo.

Women’s Race

First-time ironman-distance starter Teresa Adam of New Zealand led the swim with a 49:33 split that gave her a 3:11 lead on defending women’s champion Jocelyn McCauley (USA)., and 3:16 on Alise Selsmark of Australia. Sidall went out on the swim nearly 6 minutes behind the leader, Adam.

After women’s-best 4:54:19 and 4:57:03 bike splits, Siddall and McCauley arrived 1-2 at T2 with Adam (5:01:14 split) a minute behind in 3rd.

It was a close race and at 5.5km of the run, Siddall led McCauley by 17 seconds with Adam trailing by 2:43.

By the 14km mark, McCauley had gained the lead and Siddall trailed by 12 seconds with Adam 3:39 back. For the next 9 kilometers, Siddall and McCauley battled hard, separated by no more than 20 seconds. At 23km, Siddall made a decisive move, opening a 1:14 lead on McCauley with Adam 4:02 behind.

At 36km, Adam fought back and passed McCauley for 2nd place. After a 3:06:12 marathon, Siddall finished in 9:00:45 with a 4:51 margin of victory over Adam (3:09:35 run split) and 12:07 over 3rd place McCauley (3:17:44 run).