Currie, Orchard win XTERRA
Braden Currie and Lizzy Orchard won the 3rd annual XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship on a cool and windy day at Callala Beach in New South Wales Australia.
Currie blasted into the lead with a dominating mountain bike leg and held off fellow Kiwi Sam Osborne on the trail run to win his 9th career XTERRA title and second straight XTERRA Asia-Pacific victory.
Orchard caught long-time leader Jacqui Slack of Great Britain 7k into the rugged run and held off Carina Wasle of Austria by 27 seconds to take her 3rd straight XTERRA Asia-Pacific race of the year.
Men
Thanks to blustery winds, big waves and strong currents, race officials cut the swim from two laps to one and former surf lifesaving champ Ben Allen led the men out of the water with a 16:06 split that gave him a 6 seconds lead on two-time Aussie Olympian Courtney Atkinson and 51 seconds on defending champ Braden Currie and fellow Kiwi Sam Osborne. The rough water put Bradley Weiss of South Africa 2 minutes back and out of contention.
“Probably good for us Kiwis because we can’t swim like Courtney can,” said Currie. “It was so rough he couldn’t see where he was going so we could just follow his feet and keep in close contact with him. I knew coming out of the water it was going to be a good day if we were that close to him.”
Midway on the mountain bike segment, Atkinson fell back as Currie and Allen traded the lead with Osborne close behind.
“Braden was drilling it,” said Osborne, who finished 2nd behind Currie at XTERRA New Zealand last weekend. “I was looking at that back wheel of his and just thinking, ‘Don’t let it go, that’s my ticket to the front.’”
Currie zoomed to a 90-seconds lead with a race-best 1:15:49 MTB split, followed by Allen and 1 minute later by Osborne who passed into 2nd at 3k.
“Towards the end of that run the legs were cramping up, I think the effort of laying it down on the bike with Braden caught up with me,” said Allen. “I just tried to hang on as long as I could to Sam”.
Osborne made up 17 seconds on the run but Currie held on for a 1:24 margin of victory. Buoyed by his top swim and 2nd-best bike split, Allen ran a 6th-best 37:12 run to hold off Atkinson (9th-best 1:22:06 bike split and race-best 34:38 run) to take the last spot on the podium by a 1:43 margin over the Olympian.
Women
Jacqui Slack swam like a fish in the turbulent seas and led the women with an 18:37 split that gave her a 26 seconds margin on Catherine Sterling, 1:09 on Jessica Simpson, 1:24 on Orchard, 2:18 on Wasle and 3:47 on Renata Bucher. After a 3rd-fastest 1:31:33 MTB split, Slack led Bucher (fastest 1:28:23 split) and Wasle by a minute and Orchard by 90 seconds.
Starting the run with an energy-sucking stint in soft sand, Orchard and Wasle quickly passed Bucher. After passing Bucher, it took Orchard and Wasle to the 7k mark to catch Slack.
“We slowly, sloooowly caught Jacqui,” said Orchard, who had the fastest run of the day (41:14) to take the tape in 2:36:42, 27 seconds ahead of Wasle.
Slack was discouraged to come in 3rd after her 4th-best 43:16 run. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to win a race so much,” said Slack. “I had the best race I could’ve had, the other girls were just stronger today.”
XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship
Jervis Bay, NSW Australia
April 23, 2016
Results
Men
1. Braden Currie (NZL) 2:11:46
2. Sam Osborne (NZL) 2:13:38
3. Ben Allen (AUS) 2:14:47
4. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 2:16:30
5. Bradley Weiss (RSA) 2:17:04
Women
1. Lizzy Orchard (NZL) 2:36:42
2. Carina Wasle (AUT) 2:37:09
3. Jacqui Slack (GBR) 2:37:40
4. Renata Bucher (SUI) 2:41:05
5. Jessica Simpson (AUS) 2:41:07
