Crowley, Bozzone triumph in IRONMAN 70.3
Manama : New Zealander Terenzo Bozzone (3 hours, 41 minutes, 32 seconds) and Australia’s Sarah Crowley (4 hours, 10 minutes, 59 seconds) are the new IRONMAN 70.3 Middle East Champions after winning in cool and at times difficult windy conditions over the 113km course.
The championship featuring around 1,200 triathletes including around 60 pros, comprised a 1.9km swim around the waters of Bahrain Bay at the Four Seasons Hotel, then a 90km cycle ride to the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), bypassing many famous well-known Bahraini buildings and landmarks on the way from Manama through the desert, before finishing with a 21.1km run from BIC to Al Areen Wildlife Park and back to BIC to conclude the race.
The championship was held under the patronage of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.
Participants started the 1.9km swim in Bahrain Bay with air and water temperatures of around 18 centigrade at the 6.55pm start as the pro triathletes got the event underway.
In the Men’s Pro category, Bozzone finished the swimming stage in sixth place behind Eric Watson, Michael Raelart, Sam Appleton, Steffen Justus, Romain Guillaime and Bozzone with 10 seconds separating the top six.
During the 90km cycling, Bozzone opened up a 16 second lead over German Michael Raelert and Frenchman Guillaume (+25) after 12km despite strong headwinds along the course.
After around 47km, Bozzone of the Bahrain Endurance Elite 13 had extended his lead to a minute and 48 seconds over Raelert and finished the bike section (+4:28) ahead of teammate Appleton (+2:24) going into the run with Justus (+4.53) in third.
In the run, Bozzone had a healthy lead of (+2.45 seconds) after 9kms from the BIC into Al Areen Park, but his lead was eroded by Justus to just under a minute during the mid stage of the run, but managed to hang on for victory ahead of Justus.
His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa presented medals to the podium winners, Bozzone, Justus and Sam Appleton.
In the women’s race, Sarah Crowley from Australia (4 hours 10 minutes 59 seconds), was followed by Briton Emma Pallant (+1:27), and Swiss Caroline Steffen (+4:10) of Switzerland who was placed third this time and second last year.
After the swim, Caroline Steffen, Maria Czesnik and Natalie Seymour held the three top positions with Judith Corachan Vaque, Emma Palant and Karen Thibodeau fourth to sixth.
After the cycling section, American Jocelyn McCauley was going well but for an error and disqualified.
“It is always fun. Now it’s two in a row. The wind was tough at times but it was an amazing race in an amazing location,” said Bozzone. It was the second win within just a short period of time for Bozzone who recently celebrated his first long distance win at IRONMAN Western Australia.
For Crowley it was a different story. The Australian patiently waited until deep into the race before finally making a move on the last kilometres of the run. Crowley passed Emma Pallant who herself had just caught up with Diana Riesler who led for most of the race.
McCauley who thought she was in the lead for most of the bike course was later informed she had unintentionally cut the course. She reacted in the most sportsmanlike manner possible, saying: “Sorry for my mistake and thank you to the amazing officials out on the course. They knew how to give bad news kindly.” After the women’s race the podium medals were presented by Shaikh Faisal bin Rashid.
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