Kiwi Terenzo Bozzone is the comeback story of the year. Five months after a hit-and-run bike accident that left him requiring significant surgery, he returned to first win IRONMAN 70.3 West Sydney, and now, IRONMAN Western Australia.
After leading out of the swim, he trailed Australian Cameron Wurf, who broke Luke McKenzie’s bike record with a 4:07:14 effort to secure a 3:45 buffer on to the run. But Bozzone waited until the second half of the run, finally edging past Wurf, a former pro cyclist, at the 33km mark. Bozzone's 2:51:13 marathon run contributed to a superb 7:56:00, effort which was only 4:30 off his own race record. It was his third win in succession at Busselton, all of them under the eight-hour mark.
Wurf, who led in similar circumstances on the bike at this year's IRONMAN World Championship brought to you by Amazon, this time held on during the run to finish second and also go under eight hours. The 2015 champion, Luke McKenzie, finished third.
The women's race was a display of complete domination by Caroline Steffen, who came out of the water with Chile’s Barbara Riveros and then sailed into the sunset. A slow flat tire late in the bike cost her the bike record, but that mattered little as Xena-of-old stormed home with a 3:06:14 marathon to win in 8:49:46, which smashed Aussie Melissa Hauschildt’s race record by nearly five minutes.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Bozzone, Terenzo NZL 7:56:01
2 Wurf, Cameron AUS 7:57:41
3 Burton, Matt AUS 8:07:19
4 McKenzie, Luke AUS 8:09:44
5 Dirksmeir, Dirk DEU 8:13:29
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Steffen, Caroline CHE 8:49:46
2 Riveros, Barara CHL 9:08:09
3 Duke, Dimity-Lee AUS 9:15:37
4 Loughnan, Emily AUS 9:20:54
5 McKenzie, Beth USA 9:23:28