Race Conditions

This year the conditions in New Zealand were pretty quick across all three legs – almost no winds, and pleasant temperatures that seemed to be not too hot and not too cold. An adjustment of 7:49 is the fastest I have seen in recent years, leading to a new course rating of 4:34. The conditions probably helped, but it was amazing to see a new swim record by Dylan McNeice (44:26, improving on Brent Foster’s 44:47 from 2004) and an overall women’s record by Meredith Kessler (9:05:45, improving on her own record of 9:08:46 from last year).

Male Race Results

Cam Brown continues to amaze: He won his 11th New Zealand title, and improved his own record of being the oldest male IM winner (now at 42 years, 8 months and 15 days). He was a bit behind after the swim, but bridged up to the front and slowly pulled away. Terns was still close to him in T2, but Cam quickly put some time into Terenzo and posted the fastest bike and run to win by six minutes.

Just one week after his big win in Dubai, Terenzo had a solid day: He was in the lead for some time on the bike, then ran a 2:55 marathon to finish second. The race for third came down to the wire: Challenge Wanaka winner Dylan McNeice struggled a bit on the bike after his swim course record, but found another gear at the end of the run and chased down Alex Reithmeier, securing a New Zealand podium!

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to expected
1	Cameron Brown	NZL	00:50:02	04:37:39	02:49:08	08:22:13	02:24
2	Terenzo Bozzone	NZL	00:47:04	04:41:08	02:55:51	08:28:53	02:11
3	Dylan McNeice	NZL	00:44:26	04:53:27	02:54:24	08:38:05	-01:11
4	Alex Reithmeier	AUS	00:50:03	04:43:03	02:59:58	08:38:47	-03:44
5	Mike Schifferle	SUI	00:56:36	04:38:26	03:03:07	08:46:33	-10:14
6	Carl Read	NZL	00:50:41	04:51:31	03:00:02	08:47:41	00:20
7	Simon Cochrane	NZL	00:49:59	04:52:25	03:03:32	08:51:11	-05:59
8	Todd Skipworth	AUS	00:44:32	04:54:00	03:12:21	08:55:31	08:19
9	Chris Sanson	NZL	00:56:21	04:56:00	02:56:54	08:56:06	-08:19
10	Johan Borg	AUS	00:56:16	04:55:50	03:08:28	09:06:06	-05:30
11	Shanon Stallard	NZL	00:56:19	05:08:49	02:56:08	09:06:25	-06:36
12	Ricky Swindale	AUS	00:50:07	05:08:04	03:03:03	09:07:41	n/a
13	Graham O’Grady	NZL	00:44:29	04:45:16	03:44:40	09:19:20	n/a
14	James Cotter	NZL	00:47:04	05:36:44	03:52:31	10:24:30	26:42
15	James Bowstead	NZL	00:50:06	04:55:42	04:43:19	10:36:12	1:11:06
	Nick Baldwin	SEY	00:50:06	04:52:23		DNF
	Young Hwan Oh	KOR	00:56:27	05:28:36		DNF
	Andrew Yoder	USA	00:48:00			DNF
	Daiki Masuda	JPN	00:56:13			DNF
	Joel Jameson	GBR	00:59:50			DNF

Female Race Results

There was never a doubt in the women’s race: Meredith Kessler posted the fastest times in all three legs, even closing the day a new personal best for an Ironman marathon! An impressive, dominating performance that gives her breathing room to properly build for Kona now.

Even if Gina Crawford (also only two weeks after winning Challenge Wanaka) didn’t have a good day (as indicated by red times in all legs), she was never really challenged for second place. The final spot on the podium was taken by Melanie Burke.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to expected
1	Meredith Kessler	USA	00:49:36	05:04:29	03:07:18	09:05:45	-07:38
2	Gina Crawford	NZL	00:51:25	05:16:55	03:11:13	09:26:11	11:38
3	Melanie Burke	NZL	01:02:46	05:12:19	03:20:29	09:41:51	00:56
4	Stephanie Jones	USA	01:00:39	05:18:47	03:21:13	09:47:32	04:59
5	Jocelyn Mccauley	USA	00:58:46	05:30:33	03:13:25	09:50:01	n/a
6	Erin Furness	NZL	01:01:09	05:33:29	03:32:18	10:13:05	10:07
7	Conny Dauben	GER	01:06:08	05:53:42	04:19:47	11:27:58	40:34

Photo Credits: Tweets by Cam Brown and Meredith Kessler

If you want to, you can submit your picks for IM Melbourne on IM-Predictions.com and see how you do against all our other players!

Previous Winners

Year	Male Winner	Time	Female Winner	Time
2012	Craig Alexander (AUS)	07:57:44	Caroline Steffen (SUI)	08:34:51
2013*	Eneko Llanos (ESP)	07:36:08	Corinne Abraham (GBR)	08:10:56
2014	Dirk Bockel (LUX)	08:01:02	Caroline Steffen (SUI)	08:57:57

*) shortened swim

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Dirk Bockel	LUX	00:45:35	04:23:05	02:48:35	08:01:02
2	Paul Matthews	AUS	00:45:34	04:29:02	02:44:09	08:02:14
3	David Dellow	AUS	00:45:44	04:21:35	02:51:41	08:03:07

Female Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Caroline Steffen	SUI	00:52:03	04:56:38	03:04:44	08:57:57
2	Mary Beth Ellis	USA	00:50:00	04:59:36	03:08:48	09:02:15
3	Kim Schwabenbauer	USA	01:03:32	05:00:13	03:01:34	09:10:06

Course Records

Leg	Gender	Record	Athlete	Date
Total	overall	07:57:44	Craig Alexander	2012-03-24
Swim	overall	00:45:23	Benjamin Sanson	2014-03-23
Bike	overall	04:20:50	Michael Weiss	2014-03-23
Run	overall	02:38:46	Craig Alexander	2012-03-24
Total	female	08:34:51	Caroline Steffen	2012-03-24
Swim	female	00:50:00	Mary Beth Ellis	2014-03-23
Bike	female	04:35:29	Caroline Steffen	2012-03-24
Run	female	02:58:29	Mirinda Carfrae	2012-03-24

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM Melbourne is 12:07.

Race Adjustments for IM Melbourne

Year	Adjustment	Swim Adj.	Bike Adj.	Run Adj.	# of Athletes	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating
2012	09:11	-01:22	10:34	04:05	41	09:11	-01:22	10:34	04:05
2014	15:02	00:05	08:34	07:02	37	12:07	-00:38	09:34	05:33

KPR points and Prize Money

IM Melbourne has 4000 KPR points for the winner. It has a total prize purse of 150k$. As a Regional Championship the Melbourne winners will receive an Automatic Qualifier spot for Kona 2015. Melbourne will also be the first race that will have mandatory GPS tracking for the Professional athletes – hopefully this will help to provide good coverage for the race!

Male Race Participants

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Exp. Swim	Exp. Bike	Exp. Run	Overall
1	1	Nils Frommhold	GER	08:07:33	08:14:10	00:48:26	04:23:57	02:50:10	2
2	13	Christian Kramer	GER	08:17:58	08:40:33	00:47:57	04:33:14	02:51:46	48
3	2	Tim Van Berkel	AUS	08:20:36	08:33:20	00:50:07	04:35:39	02:49:50	24
4	4	Marko Albert	EST	08:21:57	08:34:23	00:47:31	04:34:59	02:54:26	28
5	5	Peter Robertson	AUS	08:22:37	08:43:18	00:47:15	04:31:40	02:58:42	(55)
6	3	Luke Bell	AUS	08:23:30	09:07:54	00:48:02	04:31:54	02:58:34	(156)
7	8	Jeff Symonds	CAN	08:26:06	08:38:28	00:51:59	04:41:10	02:47:56	37
8	9	Jens Petersen-Bach	DEN	08:26:50	08:46:49	00:52:32	04:39:02	02:50:17	67
9	6	Jan Raphael	GER	08:27:06	08:36:59	00:49:42	04:36:58	02:55:27	34
10	7	Per Bittner	GER	08:33:51	08:45:33	00:50:46	04:39:57	02:58:09	59
11	15	Casey Munro	AUS	08:34:42	09:05:09	00:46:36	04:29:49	03:13:17	(147)
12	19	Joshua Rix	AUS	08:42:46	09:08:29	00:50:38	04:37:33	03:09:35	164
13	10	Nick Baldwin	SEY	08:42:57	09:01:01	00:54:43	04:40:25	03:02:49	131
14	21	Jan Van Berkel	SUI	08:44:18	08:57:19	00:49:26	04:35:20	03:14:32	117
15	20	Todd Skipworth	AUS	08:48:11	09:16:41	00:47:04	04:34:44	03:21:23	(199)
16	11	Simon Billeau	FRA	08:48:49	09:08:05	00:53:21	04:35:25	03:15:04	(160)
17	18	Brendan Naef	CAN	09:22:00	09:42:30	00:58:41	05:02:31	03:15:48	306
	12	Brad Kahlefeldt	AUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	14	Lachlan Kern	AUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	16	Callum Millward	NZL	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	17	Dan McGuigan	AUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)

Female Race Participants

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Exp. Swim	Exp. Bike	Exp. Run	Overall
1	32	Mirinda Carfrae	AUS	08:49:02	08:56:08	00:55:32	04:58:08	02:50:22	1
2	31	Caroline Steffen	SUI	08:51:34	09:10:02	00:52:36	04:49:38	03:04:20	4
3	33	Yvonne Van Vlerken	NED	09:05:22	09:13:42	00:59:26	04:53:32	03:07:24	5
4	38	Mareen Hufe	GER	09:19:36	09:36:43	01:00:40	04:55:40	03:18:16	39
5	35	Asa Lundstroem	SWE	09:21:22	09:34:57	01:00:45	05:03:43	03:11:54	34
6	47	Emma Pooley	GBR	09:27:02	09:51:42	01:03:32	04:57:41	03:20:48	(67)
7	37	Beth Gerdes	USA	09:28:24	09:51:25	01:03:51	05:17:32	03:02:01	66
8	36	Bree Wee	USA	09:28:42	09:42:10	00:55:20	05:11:42	03:16:39	47
9	44	Stephanie Jones	USA	09:29:58	10:08:58	01:06:20	05:06:59	03:11:38	(109)
10	42	Ashley Clifford	USA	09:30:38	09:41:34	00:55:30	05:23:19	03:06:49	46
11	34	Melissa Hauschildt	AUS	09:32:37	09:57:31	00:55:36	05:11:58	03:20:03	(85)
12	40	Laura Bennett	USA	09:34:54	09:59:55	00:53:38	05:06:14	03:30:02	(90)
13	41	Kym Coogan	AUS	09:42:59	10:08:20	00:58:18	05:10:51	03:28:50	(107)
14	43	Kristy Hallett	AUS	10:02:16	10:31:21	01:04:31	05:15:04	03:37:41	154
15	48	Natasha Van der Merwe	USA	10:09:30	10:31:31	01:04:04	05:19:34	03:40:52	155
	39	Annabel Luxford	AUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	45	Marina Jurjevic	AUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	46	Jessica Mitchell	AUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

My favorites are two Germans, Nils Frommhold (6th in Kona 2014) and Christian Kramer (who went sub-8 in Austria 2014). Marko Albert is another strong European athlete, while the home country hopes ride on Tim Van Berkel (7th in Kona 2014), Luke Bell (hopefully fully recovered after an injury-ridden 2014 season) and Peter Robertson (who had to miss Kona with a broken collarbone):

• Nils Frommhold: 40% (2-1)
• Christian Kramer: 22% (4-1)
• Tim Van Berkel: 12% (8-1)
• Marko Albert: 10% (9-1)
• Luke Bell: 9% (10-1)

Female Race Participants

The female fields is about as large as the men’s field – and probably even deeper. My top seeded athlete is Mirinda Carfrae returning to race in her home country, but it remains to be seen in what shape she’ll race. (Her previous spring races were more focused on validating her Kona slot in a decent way.) Last year’s winners Caroline Steffen would like to repeat and show that she is still a strong Kona contender. Yvonne Van Vlerken still needs a solid performance to ensure a return to the big island.

• Mirinda Carfrae: 56% (1-1)
• Caroline Steffen: 33% (2-1)
• Yvonne Van Vlerken: 6% (15-1)

Behind these three top athletes, there is a strong group of athletes looking for a podium spot or a good number of KPR points: I’m sure that Mareen Hufe, Asa Lundstroem, Emma Pooley, Beth Gerdes, Bree Wee, Ashley Clifford, Mel Hauschildt, Laura Bennett and Annabel Luxford will make the women’s race interesting to follow.

This will be the first year that South Africa will be a Regional Championship. The automatic Kona slot for the winners, the large number of KPR points (it a P-4000 race now) and the increased prize purse of $150.000 has managed to attract a string field. Race registration is closed by now and while there may be a few withdrawals, we can get a good indication of the participants. I will post my regular longer predictions closer to the race.

Male Race Participants

Bib	Name	Nation
1	Cyril Viennot	FRA
2	Frederik Van Lierde	BEL
3	Bart Aernouts	BEL
4	Michael Weiss	AUT
5	Kyle Buckingham	ZAF
6	Bas Diederen	NED
7	Matt Trautman	ZAF
8	Johann Ackermann	GER
9	Mike Aigroz	SUI
10	Konstantin Bachor	GER
11	Bertrand Billard	FRA
12	Gerhard De Bruin	ZAF
13	Fraser Cartmell	GBR
14	Alberto Casadei	ITA
15	Emanuele Ciotti	ITA
16	Will Clarke	GBR
17	Greg Close	USA
18	James Cunnama	ZAF
19	Karl-Johan Danielsson	SWE
20	Michael Davidson	ZAF
21	Victor Del Corral	ESP
22	Trevor Delsaut	FRA
23	Marc Duelsen	GER
24	Karol Dzalaj	SVK
25	Herve Faure	FRA
26	Frederik Flagstad	GRL
27	Hannes Cool	BEL
28	Kent Horner	ZAF
29	Allan Hovda	NOR
30	Martin Jensen	DEN
31	Kirill Kotshegarov	EST
32	Roman Krutina	CZE
33	Eneko Llanos	ESP
34	Carlos Lopez Diaz	ESP
35	Jim Lubinski	USA
36	David Mcnamee	GBR
37	Johannes Moldan	GER
39	David Plese	SLO
40	Ivan Rana	ESP
41	Michael Ruenz	GER
42	Till Schramm	GER
43	Boris Stein	GER
44	Swen Sundberg	GER
45	Sylvain Sudrie	FRA
46	TJ Tollakson	USA
47	Craig Twigg	GBR
48	Urs Mueller	SWI
49	Hendrik-Jan Verhaegen	BEL
50	Andrej Vistica	CRO

Female Race Participants

Bib	Name	Nation
38	Camilla Pedersen	DEN
51	Jodie Swallow	GBR
52	Linsey Corbin	USA
53	Beth Shutt	USA
54	Lucy Gossage	GBR
55	Stefanie Adam	BEL
56	Anne Basso	FRA
57	Anja Beranek	GER
58	Svetlana Blazevic	SRB
59	Susie Cheetham	GBR
60	Tine Deckers	BEL
61	Amber Ferreira	USA
62	Amy Forshaw	GBR
63	Astrid Ganzow	GER
64	Alyssa Godesky	USA
65	Eleanor Haresign	GBR
66	Corina Hengartner	SWI
67	Jessica Meyers	USA
68	Caroline Koll	ZAF
69	Heather Leiggi	USA
70	Maria Lemeseva	RUS
71	Caroline Livesey	GBR
72	Britta Martin	NZL
73	Nina Pekerman	ISR
74	Lucie Reed	CZE
75	Diana Riesler	GER
76	Riana Robertson	ZAF
77	Linda Scattolin	ITA
78	Caitlin Snow	USA
79	Sonja Tajsich	GER
80	Kathrin Walther	GER
81	Eva Wutti	AUT

Previous Winners

Year	Male Winner	Time	Female Winner	Time
2005	Cameron Brown (NZL)	08:20:15	Joanna Lawn (NZL)	09:30:14
2007	Cameron Brown (NZL)	08:26:33	Joanna Lawn (NZL)	09:20:02
2008	Cameron Brown (NZL)	08:24:49	Joanna Lawn (NZL)	09:16:00
2009	Cameron Brown (NZL)	08:18:05	Gina Crawford (NZL)	09:18:26
2010	Cameron Brown (NZL)	08:21:52	Joanna Lawn (NZL)	09:14:35
2011	Cameron Brown (NZL)	08:31:07	Samantha Warriner (NZL)	09:28:24
2013	Bevan Docherty (NZL)	08:15:35	Meredith Kessler (USA)	09:17:10
2014	Marko Albert (EST)	08:17:33	Meredith Kessler (USA)	09:08:46

Last Year’s TOP 3

Male Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Marko Albert	EST	00:46:10	04:36:42	02:50:05	08:17:33
2	Cameron Brown	NZL	00:48:25	04:40:39	02:47:45	08:21:55
3	Terenzo Bozzone	NZL	00:46:16	04:43:12	02:54:55	08:28:56

Female Race Results

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time
1	Meredith Kessler	USA	00:46:47	05:08:30	03:08:06	09:08:46
2	Gina Crawford	NZL	00:51:20	05:10:05	03:08:06	09:15:53
3	Candice Hammond	NZL	00:59:25	05:15:01	03:10:44	09:30:04

Course Records

Leg	Gender	Record	Athlete	Date
Total	overall	08:15:35	Bevan Docherty	2013-03-02
Swim	overall	00:44:47	Brent Foster	2004-03-06
Bike	overall	04:35:06	Bevan Docherty	2013-03-02
Run	overall	02:43:10	Cameron Brown	2009-03-07
Total	female	09:08:46	Meredith Kessler	2014-03-01
Swim	female	00:46:30	Monica Byrn	2005-05-03
Bike	female	05:01:17	Emi Shiono	2008-03-01
Run	female	03:01:06	Mirinda Carfrae	2011-03-05

Course Rating

The Course Rating for IM New Zealand is 04:06.

Race Adjustments for IM New Zealand

Year	Adjustment	Swim Adj.	Bike Adj.	Run Adj.	# of Athletes	Rating	Swim Rating	Bike Rating	Run Rating
2005	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	4	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
2007	04:39	00:53	00:10	04:50	17	04:39	00:53	00:10	04:50
2008	09:12	01:34	02:55	04:19	31	06:55	01:13	01:32	04:35
2009	07:35	00:00	03:43	03:02	27	07:09	00:49	02:16	04:04
2010	05:55	01:02	04:26	03:32	17	06:50	00:52	02:48	03:56
2011	-02:42	00:28	00:36	-01:05	20	04:56	00:47	02:22	02:56
2013	00:32	00:41	03:55	01:27	17	04:12	00:46	02:37	02:41
2014	03:31	01:02	-00:15	03:35	28	04:06	00:49	02:13	02:49

KPR points and Prize Money

IM New Zealand has 2000 KPR points for the winner. It has a total prize purse of 75 k$.

Male Race Participants

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Exp. Swim	Exp. Bike	Exp. Run	Overall
1	1	Cameron Brown	NZL	08:22:29	08:27:05	00:49:34	04:38:56	02:48:59	19
2	2	Terenzo Bozzone	NZL	08:29:10	08:34:04	00:46:34	04:42:03	02:55:33	(35)
3	6	Dylan McNeice	NZL	08:46:40	08:46:46	00:44:46	04:50:25	03:06:30	89
4	3	Joel Jameson	GBR	08:49:18	08:52:22	00:56:33	04:51:21	02:56:24	121
5	4	Nick Baldwin	SEY	08:50:54	08:50:22	00:53:14	04:47:19	03:05:20	107
6	30	Alex Reithmeier	AUS	08:51:16	08:50:02	00:47:48	04:49:10	03:09:19	(105)
7	24	Luke Martin	AUS	08:54:20	08:53:13	00:52:06	04:54:56	03:02:17	(124)
8	29	Carl Read	NZL	08:55:09	08:54:59	00:52:31	04:57:58	02:59:40	128
9	10	Todd Skipworth	AUS	08:56:12	08:54:57	00:45:46	04:41:22	03:24:04	(128)
10	9	Simon Cochrane	NZL	08:59:14	09:04:51	00:51:33	04:58:03	03:04:38	184
11	5	Mike Schifferle	SUI	09:02:19	09:04:24	01:00:25	04:51:22	03:05:32	179
12	21	Johan Borg	AUS	09:09:14	09:19:30	00:54:53	04:57:41	03:11:40	(233)
13	7	Jose Jeuland	FRA	09:09:42	09:14:53	00:52:45	05:04:43	03:07:14	211
14	32	Shanon Stallard	NZL	09:13:29	09:20:56	00:55:08	05:04:47	03:08:34	240
15	31	Chris Sanson	NZL	09:16:33	09:12:11	00:54:18	05:05:47	03:11:28	201
16	25	Daiki Masuda	JPN	09:16:52	09:48:07	00:54:52	05:01:49	03:15:12	349
17	22	James Bowstead	NZL	09:18:11	09:34:19	00:52:48	04:47:40	03:32:43	(293)
18	34	Marcus Hultgren	SWE	09:48:51	09:31:24	00:58:29	05:03:07	03:42:15	(287)
19	23	James Cotter	USA	10:05:14	10:06:50	00:47:52	05:05:03	04:07:19	(410)
	8	Andrew Yoder	USA	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	26	Graham O’Grady	NZL	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	27	Young Hwan Oh	KOR	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)
	33	Ricky Swindale	AUS	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)

Female Race Participants

Rank	Bib	Name	Nation	Expected Time	Rating	Exp. Swim	Exp. Bike	Exp. Run	Overall
1	11	Meredith Kessler	USA	09:08:31	09:21:17	00:48:15	05:03:02	03:12:14	15
2	12	Gina Crawford	NZL	09:14:52	09:22:45	00:51:05	05:10:29	03:08:18	16
3	14	Mareen Hufe	GER	09:31:41	09:36:43	00:59:15	05:05:11	03:22:15	42
4	15	Stephanie Jones	USA	09:41:29	09:51:03	01:04:53	05:16:16	03:15:20	(82)
5	13	Melanie Burke	NZL	09:42:08	09:49:20	01:05:36	05:14:23	03:17:08	77
6	17	Erin Furness	NZL	10:05:40	10:11:50	01:00:44	05:31:59	03:27:57	130
7	16	Conny Dauben	GER	10:52:52	10:57:22	01:07:18	05:40:58	03:59:36	172
	18	Jocelyn Mccauley	USA	n/a	unrated	unrated	unrated	unrated	(n/a)

Winning Odds

Male Race Participants

Cam Brown is the clear favorite for another New Zealand title. Terns Bozzone has been working on his IM skills for a while but hasn’t had a break-through race just yet. Maybe this is the year he can finally nail an Ironman race? Dylan McNeice will probably not be on top of his game after winning IM Wanaka just two weeks before but you never know how these doubles turn out:

• Cameron Brown: 64% (1-1)
• Terenzo Bozzone: 26% (3-1)
• Dylan McNeice: 4% (23-1)

Female Race Participants

Meredith Kessler is the clear female favorite. If nothing goes wrong for „MBK“, she should win her fourth New Zealand title in a row. Her main contender, Gina Crawford, is also just coming off another IM-distance race – winning Challenge Wanaka. Maybe Mareen Hufe can deliver another great performance on the „fifth continent“ after her great second place at Ironman Western Australia in early December.

• Meredith Kessler: 59% (1-1)
• Gina Crawford: 29% (2-1)
• Mareen Hufe: 9% (10-1)
• Stephanie Jones: 2% (51-1)

Course Rating

Compared to the regular conditions in Wanaka, the swim and the bike ride were pretty quick and resulted in two new course records: 45:33 by Dylan for the swim and 4:30:51 by Dougal Allen (pictured on the right) for the bike. Maybe the athletes paid for it on the run which was pretty slow. Overall Wanaka continues to be one of the slowest courses on the Pro circuit with a new course rating of -5:30.

Male Race Results

After his  trademark fast swim (even though it was a new course record, it was actually slower than expected!), Dylan McNeice continued to be in the lead for the rest of the race. While he quickly distanced the good swimmers, Dougal Allen made up most of his more than 17 minutes deficit after the swim, and they were within a few seconds of each other after T2. Dylan (pictured on the bottom) then needed a race-best 3-hours-flat marathon to win by less than three minutes over Dougal. Courtney Ogden took the last spot on the podium.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to expected
1	Dylan McNeice	NZL	00:45:33	04:47:13	03:00:29	08:37:14	-25:45
2	Dougal Allan	NZL	01:02:41	04:30:51	03:03:08	08:40:06	-22:17
3	Courtney Ogden	AUS	00:50:56	04:50:51	03:02:59	08:49:46	-03:03
4	Carl Read	NZL	00:50:32	04:55:21	03:00:59	08:50:47	-20:21
5	Braden Currie	NZL	00:50:01	04:57:12	03:05:09	08:56:11	n/a
6	Michael Fox	AUS	00:48:18	04:58:47	03:11:38	09:02:58	n/a
7	Chris Sanson	NZL	00:56:47	04:53:35	03:08:54	09:03:18	-37:22
8	Luke Martin	AUS	00:50:40	04:58:13	03:11:40	09:05:47	00:15
9	Joel Jameson	GBR	01:01:38	04:54:32	03:06:58	09:07:14	02:56
10	Petr Vabrousek	CZE	00:56:46	05:05:18	03:20:40	09:29:19	17:31
11	Marcus Hultgren	SWE	00:56:40	05:12:46	03:17:53	09:31:32	-28:59
12	Matt Burton	AUS	00:53:02	04:50:32	03:58:54	09:47:23	55:07
13	Benjamin Williams	USA	00:53:08	05:23:34	03:33:30	09:55:12	43:09
14	Thijs Hubber	NZL	00:50:48	05:36:58	03:52:14	10:25:28	n/a
	Matt Randall	NZL	00:58:54	04:56:01		DNF
	Keegan Williams	NZL	00:50:45			DNF

Female Race Results

Gina Crawford put on a dominating performance, putting up the race-best times in all three legs, reclaiming the title she lost to Candice Hammond last year and winning Challenge Wanaka for the sixth time. Her PurplePatch training colleague Laura Siddall finished second in her second IM-distance race, with Michelle Bremer taking the third spot. (The photo on the right shows Michelle, Gina and Laura from left to right.)

Simone Maier finished in fourth place just one week after finishing New Zealand’s „Coast to Coast“ race in second place – a performance as remarkable as Braden Currie finishing fifth on the men’s side after winning Coast to Coast the week before.

Rank	Name	Nation	Swim	Bike	Run	Time	Diff to expected
1	Gina Crawford	NZL	00:50:55	05:12:39	03:22:25	09:31:51	-04:17
2	Laura Siddall	GBR	00:57:13	05:12:44	03:28:43	09:43:46	-11:46
3	Michelle Bremer	NZL	00:56:49	05:16:44	03:34:28	09:52:16	-05:52
4	Simone Maier	GER	01:05:12	05:26:32	03:29:02	10:05:58	00:10
5	Charisa Wernick	USA	00:59:24	05:45:24	03:28:37	10:18:54	08:27
6	Tracy Douglas	AUS	01:05:13	05:31:31	03:39:23	10:21:20	04:14
7	Larisa Marsh	NZL	00:58:46	05:32:28	04:01:43	10:38:31	23:13
8	Katya Meyers	USA	01:06:17	05:31:15	04:14:49	10:56:54	20:14
9	Kristin Lemos	USA	00:59:42	06:07:15	03:57:39	11:11:44	1:10:57
	Jessica Fleming	AUS	00:58:42	05:19:19		DNF
	Christie Sym	AUS	00:56:31	05:26:51		DNF

Photo Credits: Getty Images, 2015 (through Challenge Wanaka)