40th Kathmandu Coast to Coast
Braden Currie Claims C2C Title Number 4 After 6 Year Break
Press Release / 12.02.2022
Wanaka’s Braden Currie has won the 40th Anniversary Kathmandu Coast to Coast Longest Day, adding a fourth Multisport World Championship title to his name.
Currie, who has specialised in Ironman for the past six years, only secured an entry into the famous race that runs, kayaks and cycles 243 kilometres just 48 hours prior to the race, stopping the clock in 9 hours 45 minutes and 23 seconds.
“It’s incredible, it really is! I’ve always wanted to come back and race this race, I love it, I just love it. I love the course, it’s just the most incredible thing, it means so much, it’s the most incredible feeling.”
Defending Champion Dougal Allan worked his way into second after suffering an injury to his foot on the 30.5 km Mountain Run over Goat Pass.
“It’s good to get to the finish line, there was a little bit of doubt there at times."
“I don’t know what to say really, it was tough, it was tough. I couldn’t find a rhythm, but that’s probably what you get when you have a guy like Braden applying pressure on the front all day.”
Allan crossed the line in New Brighton in 10 hours 5 minutes and 34 seconds and has since been taken to hospital for an x-ray.
Tauranga’s Bobby Dean managed to hold off North Canterbury’s Ryan Kiesanowski by 32 seconds, to claim third, finishing in 10:13:17, with Kiesanowski in fourth with a time of 10:13:49 after the duo battled it out for much of the race.
35-year-old Currie laid out his intentions right from the start, leading for much of the 56-kilometre first ride and establishing a two-minute lead at the first river crossing of the Mountain Run. By the end of the run Currie had stretched it to 9 minutes 30 over Dean, and 14 to Allan and Sam Manson and Kiesanowski.
“It was a huge decision to race and get on the start line, but once you get on the start line there’s only one thing you can do and go out and race. I just had a good day, a good run and a good bike. I knew that the river was going to be so high that if I just stayed in the fast water and kept my kayak upright, I shouldn’t lose too much time and that’s what happened.”
Second seed Sam Mason finished in 10 hours and 26 minutes to claim fifth, while Lyttleton fireman Sam Goodall finished 6th in a time of 10:43:18.
Nathan Shepperd was a further 5 minutes back, securing 7th, Nathan Peterson was another 10 minutes back in 10:58:42, with Tauranga Builder Brad McNamara who stepped up to the elite men’s competition for the first-time finished 9th in 11 hours and fifty seconds.
Caleb Hill rounded out the top 10 elite men in 11:06:21.
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