Ironman athletes show their mettle

Peter Jones

Marlborough athletes were up among the leading performers in the recent Ironman New Zealand at Taupo.

First in her 30-34 age group and third female age group athlete overall was Nat Sutton who completed the gruelling 3.9km swim, 180.2km bike ride and 42.2km run course in 10 hours, 31 minutes, 06 seconds. Nat took 1:01:11 for the swim, covered the bike ride in 5:47:52 and completed the run in 3:35:02.

She said afterward that, while happy with the win and becoming third age grouper, “I don’t feel like I did the race justice”.

“I wanted and worked hard for more,” she said. “I have more in me. Some stuff that impacted the race was out of my control and some stuff was.”

Meanwhile, former national champion road cyclist Jason Christie showed he is adapting swiftly to his new sport with a superb 10th finish in the men’s pro category, coming home 14th overall in a time of 9:13:48.

He swam the first leg in 1:07:00, sped over the bike course in 4:35:41, the sixth fastest time, and ran the final marathon in 3:24:30.

At the top of the field Mike Phillips held off Braden Currie to win his second Ironman New Zealand men’s title, while Els Visser claimed her first win in the women’s event.

Times for other Marlborough competitors: Grant Boyd 14.36, Megan Parr, in her first Ironman, 16.45, Martyn Birch 12.36, Luke Grogan 11.21, Oliver Roberts 12.17, Paddy Dowling 15.30 and Peter Mann, 15.52.

In the Ironman 70.3 section, Fred Escalle came home in 6.36.