Two young homegrown triathletes out-shone rivals in Western Australia. Young guns Sam Appleton and Felicity Sheedy-Ryan edged more illustrious rivals to win the SunSmart IRONMAN 70.3 Busselton in Western Australia. Appleton, a rising star on the Australian IRONMAN scene, edged the 2008 world champion Terenzo Bozzone on the run to claim the men’s honours. Meanwhile ITU specialist Sheedy-Ryan, a local Western Australian triathlete, held off the experienced Liz Blatchford to win the women’s title for a second time.
Men’s Race
Appleton, from Western Sydney, put together a perfect race, coming home in 3:44:28 after being at the head of the race throughout.
New Zealand’s Guy Crawford lead Appleton out of the 1.9km swim but once on the bike Appleton broke away with IRONMAN New Zealand runner-up Bozzone as the pair rode clear of the challengers throughout the 90km ride.
"I was hoping to get a lead on the bike," says Appleton. "I knew for me coming into this race I’d need to swim and bike hard because there were going to be some really quality runners out there.
"Terenzo and I were lucky enough to get a little bit of a gap and we didn’t look back. We worked really well to secure those top two spots."
The leading pair had a four minute lead on their nearest competition - Crawford and 2013 winner and dual Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt – going on to the run.
Appleton and Bozzone were locked together until 4kms remaining where the Australian made his winning move.
"I felt great on the run and we (Bozzone) were just feeding off each other," says Appleton.
"Craig Alexander beat me in Geelong by dropping me with about 2km to go so I was having flashbacks of that and I didn’t want that to happen again."
Bozzone ended up crossing the line a minute behind Appleton in 3:45:38, while South Africa’s James Cunnama, who had the fastest run time of a brilliant 1:11:07, rounded off the podium.
Women’s Race
In the women’s race Sheedy-Ryan mimicked Appleton’s efforts, following the 2013 winner, Blatchford out of the 1.9km swim.
The pair then pushed clear on the bike, breaking away from the bunch to open a three minute buffer on to the run.
"Once I hit the run I wanted to cruise and not go out too hard – I just hoped Liz was more tired than me," says Sheedy-Ryan.
That proved to be the case with Sheedy-Ryan showed her running strength to win in 4:16:18 with Blatchford two minutes behind in 4:18:40.
As in the men's race, it was third placed Katey Gibb who had the fastest run split clocking 1:20:52 and an overall time of 4:19:18.
Professional Male:
1 Appleton, Sam (AUS) 03:44:28
2 Bozzone, Terenzo (NZL) 03:45:38
3 Cunnama, James (ZAF) 03:47:40
4 Kahlefeldt, Brad (AUS) 03:52:22
5 White, Matty (AUS) 03:55:09
Professional Female:
1 Sheedy-Ryan, Felicity (AUS) 04:16:18
2 Blatchford, Liz (AUS) 04:18:40
3 Gibb (Katey (AUS) 04:19:18
4 Bevilaqua, Kate (AUS) 04:24:38
5 Pedley, Kate (AUS) 04:27:14