Ironman New Zealand Preview
Cameron Brown’s world record reign of 10 victories will be seriously tested in the 2012 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain ironman New Zealand.
The 38 year old will face the fastest Ironman on the planet in Belgium’s Marino Vanhoenacker who set the triathlon world in a spin when he set a new world’s best time for an Ironman of 7:45:50 in Austria last year.
That took five minutes off the previous best time established 14 years previous. That’s noting the 7:41 by Andreas Raelert in an Iron-distance race at Roth – although to be doubly fair, this course in particular, and Austria may not stand up to a rigid certification on measurement.
“I am not sure how big my chances are to beat him or get close to him but I sure hope I can make him sweat a little bit at least,” said Vanhoenacker. “He kills everyone who turns up. It is his race. He owns the race. I hope I can be some competition or Mr Ironman New Zealand.”
That’s fair recognition of Brown’s feats come the first weekend in March each year.
The Auckland father of two had two runner-up placings at Taupo in its first two years behind Tim DeBoom and Thomas Hellriegel, both world champions.
His time came at the turn of the Millennium when he ran down then ITU world long distance champion Peter Sandvang from 11 minutes back with a 2:45 marathon.
Brown ran 2:49 to pull away from Swede Jonas Colting to win by three minutes in 2002, and his 2:47 run scorched Swiss star Olivier Bernhard by eight minutes the following year.
The Kiwi unleashed a 2:42 run to shake off Swede Clas Bjorling on the marathon to win by six minutes in 2004 and his 8:20:15 was sufficient for daylight back to Gordo Byrn in 2005.
His 2007 victory was the closest since his first, edging away in the final 3kms on the run from likeable Aussie Luke Bell , while he was the only one who ran under 2:50 to beat Belgium’s Fred van Lierde by seven minutes in 2008.
This was followed by three comfortable wins over Ironman tyro Terenzo Bozzone with a 2:43 and 2:47 marathons too good in 2009 and 2010. The magical 10th win came, interestingly, with a PB 4:43 on the bike, winning by 10 minutes in the rain with his only victory with a marathon over 2:50.
It’s a fair bet Brown will need to show that significant improvement on the bike against Vanhoenaker, who has a penchant for swimming fast and putting his head down to blow the field away early on the bike.
After his third placing in Hawaii in 2010, last year Vanhoenaker was second off the bike but got scorched to a standstill on the run in the furnace that is The Big Island.
That’s partly why the 35 year old has ventured to New Zealand in search of qualifying points for Hawaii. He is a six time winner of Ironman Austria, a podium placegetter at the Ironman World Championships in 2010 and also has wins in South Africa and Malaysia.
“I didn’t have the physical strength or probably the mental strength to do a late Ironman after the bad Hawaii, so I decided to let it go and try to race as early as possible in the season.
“I was in New Zealand a long, long time ago and I enjoyed it that time. I trained in Christchurch with Dr John Hellemans for several months. So there were a few factors that made me decided to go for Ironman New Zealand.”
Vanhoenacker said he knows it will prove a major challenge against Brown.
“I have followed his career and there’s been a few years I thought watching live coverage that think that this person or that person would beat him but every time you look at the end result and he kills them.”
Let’s not get carried away that this is only a two-horse race.
Bozzone is back after a debilitating 2011 season and may just be the stronger for it. After his runner-up effort at Taupo, the 26 year old pushed back into the US racing season too early and developed an Achilles problem. Despite rest periods and treatment, it never subsided, finally derailing his season in August to return home for surgery.
Facing a career-threatening injury, Bozzone has been careful on his return. And while hardly lacking for mental fortitude, to come through this battle may ironically prove a turning point as he makes that huge adjustment from and Olympic distance and 70.3 athlete to success over the full ironman difference. Let’s not forget he is a former world Ironman 70.3 champion and three times runner-up to Cam Brown in Taupo is hardly to be sneezed at.
There’s fair argument that the 2012 men’s field is perhaps the deepest for a decade.
Waikato’s Keegan Williams was an impressive fourth in the last two years in Taupo and is working his way into the top echelon of the sport. The Team Timex athlete was sixth at IM Brazil and third at Roth last year as he mixes life as a professional athlete and coach.
Australian Aaron Farlow is a rising hope in the land of great endurance triathletes, making his Ironman breakthrough with victory in ironman UK Last year after a plethora of 70.3 podiums around the globe.
There’s a powerful bunch of Europeans heading down under to escape the northern winter.
Estonian Marko Albert was a former leading ITU athlete, competing at both the Athens and Beijing Olympics and finished runner-up at the New Plymouth World Cup. He was third in 8:08 in Vanhoenaker’s world best effort at Ironman Austria and finished an impressive 13th on debut in Kona last year.
German-born Torston Abel, now in the USA where he is married to star Leanda Cave, was second in IM Canada, fourth in Arizona in 8:16 and 10th in Texas.
Frenchman Romain Guillaume was runner-up to Farlow in Ironman UK, and in 20010 was second at Wisconsin and third in Malaysia.
There’s interest in the performance of kiwi-born American James Cotter, who has won a host of 70.3 races and one of the leading ITU and 70.3 distance athletes in North America. He has been training in Christchurch for several months to prepare for this.
Add to that solid German Stefan Schmid, compatriot Sean Donnelly who has moved up from the ITU ranks and former world long distance duathlon champion Greg Close (USA) and the field is set for a remarkably fast and aggressive race.
The men do not have it all on their own. The seven time winner Jo Lawn is determined to make it number eight after her mechanical problems last year proved costly. She enjoyed a brilliant 2011 in 70.3 racing but has returned to her roots of Ironman training for Taupo.
Returning is Gina Crawford, the 2009 IM New Zealand champion, who is back following time out for the birth of her son Benji. She prepared with a splendid win in Wanaka.
It could prove a battle of the super-mums with American Jessica Jacobs, a two time winner of Ironman Florida, venturing down under on the back of a remarkable 8:55 victory last year.
Fellow American Meredith Kessler comes with an impressive CV after several years as a burgeoning amateur she had two podiums in her first year as a pro before a breakthrough victory in IM Canada last year.
Add to that former Ironman Western Australia winner Kate Bevilaqua and compatriot Rachael Paxton, stepping up after some stellar 70.3 performances along with talented kiwis Belinda Harper and Candice Hammond and all the elements are in place for perhaps the closest battles for many years in the Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Ironman New Zealand.