Challenge Wanaka
Multisport Meets Tri at Challenge Wanaka
Rob Howard / 19.02.2015
There was an interesting mix of pro athletes at this morning’s press conference for Challenge Wanaka, held at the Edgewater Hotel complex on the outskirts of town.
The pro racers were there for a pre-race briefing ahead of the press gathering and a few then stayed on to talk about their expectations for Sunday’s race. Some were first time visitors to Wanaka, others were returning to race and knew exactly what lay ahead, and their sporting backgrounds were mixed. Most were triathlon specialists of course, race winners from around the world, but this race has a hilly course (over 1500m of ascent) and an off-road marathon route so multi-sporters Braden Currie and Dougal Allan were among the line up of race favourites. (The course record holder is Richard Ussher.)
Currie arrives off the back of his 3rd consecutive Speights Coast to Coast win last weekend and when asked how the legs felt joked, “I feel good, amazing, great, couldn’t be better!” He added, “Seriously I know I’ll be fatigued and on my first ironman I know it will be a world of hurt and there will be a lot of learning to do, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Allen chose not to return to the C2C this year and to come to Challenge Wanaka instead. He was third here last year, despite losing a lot of time to other elite racers on the swim and was asked if he’d improve on that and come out of the water with the leaders this time.
“Unlikely!” was his response. “ I wasn’t too disappointed with my swim last time but I think there is more chance to improve on the run and ride times. Last year I went at it too hard trying to catch up lost time from the swim and didn’t respect the course enough. I chose to come back here rather than race C2C again as I think I can improve more here.”
Other contenders for the top places include last year’s winner Dylan McNeice and Matt Burton of Australia who was last year’s Challenge Phillipines winner, In the women’s race former winner Gina Crawford (NZL), New Zealand Ironman distance champion Michelle Bremer and Australia’s Jessica Fleming will be the favourites, with the UK’s Laura Siddall something of an unknown quantity in only her second full distance race.
Siddall turned pro last year after 4 age group World Championship wins, and is now based out of San Francisco working with coach Matt Dixon. “My aim is to meet my own goals and expectations,” she said, “and to execute what we’ve worked on in training, and then hopefully I’ll be near the front.
“My first ironman was in Arizona and I was 8th. I learnt a lot and aim to build on that, but ultimately I want to have fun and enjoy being here. In a way I wish I wasn’t racing and could hike all these hills around us!
I guess it is a bit of risk to come to Wanaka and take on such a tough course for my second full distance race, but hope it will suit my strengths. We are lucky to be able to pick some amazing races in amazing places and come to them to stretch our limits.”
Everyone gathered for the race will feel the same, which was recently voted the World’s Most Scenic Triathlon and all those who have prior experience of the race spoke of both the beauty and the challenge of the course.
When the full course racers set off on Sunday morning they will begin with the 3.8km swim in the cold waters of Lake Wanaka, before 180km on their bikes and finally the marathon distance on foot. The race starts and finishes at the event village on the lake front of the town and large crowds are expected throughout the day.
To find out more Challenge Wanaka visit http://www.challenge-wanaka.com/
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