Bozzone, Steffen take IM Western Oz
Terenzo Bozzone of New Zealand continued his comeback from near-fatal injuries five months ago with a second straight victory, a sub-eight hour win by 1:40 over Cameron Wurf at Ironman Western Australia. Bozzone took his third straight Western Australia win with a 7:56:00 performance that was second only to his 7:51:25 victory two years ago. Matt Burton of Australia took 3rd place, 11:19 back of the winner.
The win follows Bozzone’s victory eight days ago at Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney. Bozzone, the 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Champion, suffered a concussion, had and facial injuries and a broken cheek bone in a hit-and-run collision with a logging truck while bike training near his home in New Zealand in July.
Bozzone’s was not the only notable performance. Wurf, an Olympic rower and former professional road cyclist who set the Ironman World Championship bike split record this year, put together his best overall Ironman performance which included 49:55 swim, a race record 4:07:14 bike split and a 5th-fastest 2:56:30 marathon. Bozzone, who started the run 3:44 back of Wurf, took 30 kilometers before he ran down the Aussie überbiker.
In her first Ironman in three years, Caroline Steffen of Switzerland smashed the women's field and broke the course record with an 8:49:46 win at Busselton. Steffen combined a women’s race-best 53:54 swim, a women's race-best 4:44:52 bike split and a women’s second-fastest 3:06:14 marathon to finish with an 18:43 margin of victory over Barbara Riveros of Chile and 25:51 over 3rd place Dimity-Lee Duke of Australia.
Steffen recently joined the ranks of pro triathlon mothers after the birth of her son Xander. At age 40, Steffen has more than two dozen Ironman and Ironman 70.3 wins and her palmares include two ITU long course World Championship wins and 2010 and 2012 Ironman World Championship runner-up finishes.
Ironman Western Australia
Busselton, Australia
December 2, 2018
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.
Results
Men
1, Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 7:56:00 S 48:48 T1 2:13 B 4:12:12 T2 1:37 R 2:51:13
2. Cameron Wurf (AUS) 7:57:40 S 49:55 T1 2:19 B 4:07:14 T2 1:45 R 2:56:30
3. Matt Burton (AUS) 8:07:19 S 52:17 T1 3:02 B 4:16:21 T2 2:01 R 2:53:41
4. Luke McKenzie (AUS) 8:09:44 S 49:50 T1 2:24 B 4:19:29 T2 2:01 R 2:56:02
5. Patrick Dirksmeier (GER) 8:13:29 S 49:49 T1 2:39 B 4:23:36 T2 2:10 R 2:55:17
Women
1. Caroline Steffen (SUI) 8:49:46 S 53:54 T1 2:53 B 4:44:52 T2 1:55 R 3:06:14
2. Barbara Riveros (CHL) 9:08:09 S 54:00 T1 2:42 B 4:58:47 T2 1:46 R 3:10:56
3. Dimity-Lee Duke (AUS) 9:15:37 S 1:00:32 T1 3:14 B 4:59:09 T2 2:01 R 3:10:42
4. Emily Loughnan (AUS) 9:20:54 S 55:39 T1 3:02 B 5:07:25 T2 1:47 R 3:13:03
5. Beth McKenzie (USA) 9:23:28 S 1:02:48 T1 2:56 B 5:09:42 T2 2:00 R 3:06:03
