Lawn faces major test to extend record at Bonita Ironman NZ
Six-time champion Joanna Lawn has received top seeding for next month’s Bonita Ironman New Zealand.
Lawn (Auckland), the first person to win the same Ironman event six times in succession, is expected to face her toughest challenge to extend her record in Taupo on 7 March.
She faces a contingent of proven international talent although fellow kiwi Gina Ferguson (Christchurch) is expected to provide her sternest test.
Japan’s Emi Shiono, third last year, is the second seed ahead of brilliant Scottish triathlete Bella Bayliss (nee Comerford), a six-time Ironman winner, who was fourth last year.
Ferguson, who was eighth on debut at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii last year, was fifth in 2008 and has the No 4 seeding this year.
Former world long distance champion Lisbeth Kristensen is seeded fifth ahead of Australian Charlotte Paul, who was an Ironman winner last season.
“Any of the top six seeds could win this race. They all have the right credentials,” said Ironman New Zealand Event Director, Jane Patterson. “Jo has been unstoppable in Taupo for six year but will need to be at her very best to hold off this field which is one of the strongest we have had.”
It could have been even stronger but last year’s runner-up Kate Bevilaqua (Australia) did not recover from a serious accident in time to race in the 25th anniversary of Ironman New Zealand, the original international Ironman race that began in Auckland in 1985 before moving to Taupo in 1999.
Lawn, 33, has enjoyed a healthy buffer over her rivals in most of her six wins – aside from that super-exciting first victory in 2003 when only three minutes separated Lawn, defending champion Karyn Ballance and two-time winner Lisa Bentley (Canada).
She won by nine minutes in 2004, daylight in 2005, four minutes in the weather-shortened 2006, nine minutes in 2007 and four minutes despite a duel with Bevilaqua until the 30km mark on the run in 2008.
However Lawn may need to lower her course record of 9:16:00 if she is to prevail. – doesn’t make sense?? Do the opposition need to beat the course record to beat jo?
Many are looking for a major battle with Canterbury’s Ferguson who mixes a mammoth racing load – she completed six ironman distance races in 2008 – with continued improvement in times and results.
After her win in the Iron-distance race at Wanaka in January last year, Ferguson placed fifth in Taupo, then second in Ironman Singapore, third at Roth and then victory at Ironman Western Australia in December. And there was her breakthrough eighth place on debut at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.
Ferguson reckons she has yet to put together a pleasing performance at Ironman New Zealand and says she treated her second win at Wanaka in January like a long training day as she believes that her improvement on the bike, under coach Greg Fraine, will enable her to mount a more serious challenge in Taupo.
Shiono was the surprise packet in 2008 and went on to finish third at ironman Japan. She returns to prove that she can push more confidently to the top of the tree.
Bayliss, fourth last year, returns to Taupo where, like Ferguson, she has not produced her best. And that best is something, with three victories in 2008 at Ironman South Africa, Ironman Lanzarote and Ironman Florida, second in Ironman Austria, and fourth in Taupo. She enjoyed a career best seventh at Hawaii.
Kristensen returns for the first time since her fifth placing in 2003. The former world long distance champion enjoyed a remarkable 2006 season with wins in Ironman Brazil and Ironman Western Australia, third in Ironman Germany and a win in the European championship. She had most of 2007 off with the birth of her first child, and is back – she hopes better than ever.
Paul completes a very talented group of challengers. The Sunshine Coast 35-year-old won Ironman Western Australia on debut in 2007 in a race record before going on to finish 16th at Hawaii along with wins in half ironman races in New South Wales and Port Macquarie.
Last year she was second in Western Australia behind Ferguson and an impressive 11th in Hawaii – along with two further wins at the half ironman distance.
Of the other seeds, there is interest in current New Zealand road cycling champion Melissa Holt who is the ninth seed in her professional debut.
Holt (Cambridge), the former Olympian who defended her national road and time trial titles recently, won her age group in Taupo last year. She qualified for the world championships in Hawaii and now has taken a step up to the pro ranks.
There is a record 1495 entries for the 25th anniversary on Saturday 7 March.
The women’s seeds are:
No 1 Joanna Lawn NZL
No 2 Emi Shiono JPN
No 3 Bella Bayliss SCO
No 4 Gina Ferguson NZL
No 5 Lisbeth Kristensen DEN
No 6 Charlotte Paul AUS
No 7 Nicole Ward AUS’
No 8 Rebecca Emuller GER
No 9 Melissa Holt NZL
No 10 Miranda Alldritt CAN