O’Grady, Crawford win Tauranga

New Zealanders Graham O’Grady of Taupo and Gina Crawford of Christchurch won the men’s and women’s overall titles Saturday at the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman.

The Men

O’Grady led the 2 kilometer swim with a 22:35 split that gave him a 46 seconds lead on Terenzo Bozzone and a 2:34 advantage on Cameron Brown. His 2nd-best 2:08:32 bike split increased his lead by 33 seconds over Bozzone and 1:17 on Brown while James Bowstead’s race-best 2:06:38 chopped 1:54 back from his 3:06 deficit after the swim.

O’Grady started the run with a 1:19 lead on Bozzone, who made up the deficit by midway through the half marathon. O’Grady was then content to run with Bozzone and gather his strength. The two rivals ran together until O’Grady made a move with 5 kilometers to go.

"I knew that around the mountain was going to be tough, undulating terrain around there and I was hurting, so I kind of pictured Terenzo hurting as well and I came off the mountain with a bit of a lead,” O’Grady told New Zealand’s Newstalk.

O’Grady finished in 3:47:54, which tied the race record set by Nathan Richmond in 2006. Bozzone's race-best 1:14:23 run fell 51 seconds short at the finish.

Defending champion Cameron Brown, who won this race 9 times, finished 4:16 back of Bozzone in third place.

The Women

Crawford led the swim with a 26:33 split which gave her a 7 seconds lead on Lawn starting the bike. Crawford then took control with a race-best 2:20:52 bike split that established a 2:17 lead on defending Port of Tauranga champion Lawn at T2. Crawford then ran a 2nd-fastest 1:25:11 split that brought her to the line in 4:15:10.

Candice Hammond, who started off with a 6th-fastest 29:22 swim and a 3rd-fastest 2:24:22 bike, charged to 2nd place at the line with a race-fastest 1:22:10 run that left her 2:58 back of Crawford. Lawn ran a 3rd-best 1:28:35 that brought her home 3rd, 2:57 back of Lawn.

Port of Tauranga Half Ironman
Mount Maunganui, New Zealand
January 5, 2013
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Graham O’Grady (NZL) 3:47:54
2. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 3:48:45
3. Cameron Brown (NZL) 3:53:01
4. James Bowstead (NZL) 3:58:26
5. Rob Creasy (NZL) 4:01:37

Women

1. Gina Crawford (NZL) 4:15:10
2. Candice Hammond (NZL) 4:18:08
3. Joanna Lawn (NZL) 4:21:05
4. Hilary Wicks (NZL) 4:31:04
5. Amelia Watkinson (NZL) 4:32:46