Bozzone And Brown Impressive In Ironman Tune Up

Both Terenzo Bozzone and Cameron Brown impressed in a half Ironman race yesterday as the count down to Hawaii and the World Championship in October picks up pace, with Bozzone first and Brown third.

The Kiwis dominated the podium in the Cobra Philippines 70.3 Half Ironman yesterday, in sweltering conditions and against a quality field including former World Ironman Champion Chris McCormack (AUS), Pete Jacobs (AUS) and Tim Marr (USA).

The swim was non-wetsuit with temperatures already going beyond 30 degrees Celsius at 7am start time. Both Brown and Bozzone emerged from the water in the lead group.

Brown made a move on the bike and took the lead early but was caught by Bozzone and McCormack towards the end of the bike, albeit the trio stayed together for pretty much the entire race from that point.

Brown pinpoints the moment when he lost some vital ground and then describes the run home.

“I managed to get a small break on the group just before the bike turn around and picked up the Timex bike prime (which I didn't even know about so that was great) but the group caught me at around 55km and that was the way it stayed until we hit transition.

“Terenzo and Macca had flown through though as I stumbled to put socks on, I didn't want a repeat of my last race where I had huge blisters. By the time I left they had 100m on me already so I just had to chase hard, the first lap was pretty tough as you struggled to get to each aid station and drown your self with fluid.

“With 10km to go there was still only 200m separating 1st to 3rd, I was reeling Macca in but Terenzo was now starting to move away from all of us. I managed to get within 10m of Chris but then he surged again and I had nothing left in me. The final 2km was brutal, we had passed the final aid station and with the sun beating down on us we were all looking behind to see if we had a gap so you could coast to the finish!

“I finished 1min behind Terenzo who had a fantastic run to win in 3:51:25, and 13 seconds behind Chris so a good race all in all. I now head to Noosa, Australia for my Hawaii Ironman build up and 5 weeks of hard training.” 

Bozzone’s win was all the more remarkable given he had just days before endured a training ride crash that left him nursing heavy grazing to his legs, back and ribcage when a pot hole led to the Aucklander heading over the handlebars.

Cobra Philippines 70.3 Half Ironman
Elite Male
2km swim, 90km bike, 21km run
Swim Bike Run Total
Terenzo Bozzone, NZL 00:24:46 02:08:43 03:51:25 03:51:25
Chris McCormack, AUS 00:24:48 02:08:43 03:52:18 03:52:18
Cameron Brown, NZL 00:24:50 02:08:36 03:52:31 03:52:31
Pete Jacobs, AUS 00:24:42 02:08:39 03:56:51 03:56:51
Timothy Marr, USA 00:24:51 02:08:42 04:02:52 04:02:52