January 11, 2007

Cameron Brown wins NZ Half Ironman

World class Kiwi stars Cameron Brown and Joanna Lawn proved too classy as they took the honors in the 18th Port of Tauranga Half Ironman triathlon at Mt Maunganui Jan 6, 2007.


"It was a great start to the New Year, winning the New Zealand Half Ironman Championships in Tauranga on Saturday", remarked Brown. "Everything went well throughout the race and in the end it was great to be back to pick up my eighth title. I'm now having a few days recovery before the next training phase for the New Zealand Ironman in March. It's only 8 weeks away, so there's no time for much else."
Brown claimed his eighth win in the race that doubled as the Triathlon New Zealand long distance championships.
Brown broke clear of the field early on in the 21km run to win in 4:00.05 in testing conditions, finishing more than six minutes clear of Taupo's Duncan Milne, with New Plymouth's Hamish Johnson two minutes further back in third.
Lawn, despite battling a painful rib injury, was even more emphatic. She opened a six minute buffer on the 90km bike and won by 11 minutes over super-talented North Harbour teenager Anna Hamilton, while Christchurch's Gina Ferguson was third, 17 minutes behind the winner.

Both winners were buoyed by their success with eight weeks remaining before Ironman New Zealand in Taupo, where Brown is chasing his sixth victory and Lawn her fifth. A course change to include a long 55km first lap of the bike out into the more exposed Western Bay of Plenty coastline and a stiff south-westerly wind made for a tough test. Brown's win was 12 minutes outside the course record set last year by Nathan Richmond (Auckland) who managed sixth place in 2007 after battling with recent illness.