Wrap up of Long Course Half Ironman Championship Results Tauranga

Quite often when coaching athletes through their development it can be like putting a puzzle together, one of those ones where you have a thousand pieces and 700 hundred of them are the sky with the rest in water. For a while it looks like nothing, then little by little it starts getting clearer as you put more of the pieces together you figure out what you are seeing.

I liked what I saw in Tauranga with many of these puzzles becoming clearer after the accumulation of a lot of work by the athletes competing.

Go2max had 20 athletes on the start line for this year’s National Long Course Champs. Every year in the past we have produced national Champions and 2012 was no different with some impressive performances from both the men and women.

Although all the athletes I have racing deserve mention for various reasons from just what it takes to get to a start line, I want to mention just a few outstanding performances for the day.

Josh Harrison in the 25-29 age group after coming out of the water in 150^th place rode and ran through the field to finish 1^st in his age group winning by over 6 minutes and in the process finished 7^th overall for the day including elites.

Hilary Wicks after winning the NZ Ironman in the 30-34 age group and placing 3^rd overall in age group in World Champs in Hawaii, cleaned up her age group by over 14 minutes and finished 4^th overall including elites. Hilary improved her time from last year by 10 minutes.

Debbie White who played for the NZ silver Ferns decided to try her hand at Triathlon  to see if she could qualify for the World ITU age group Champs which was held in Auckland this past November. Well she did better than that finishing 2^nd overall in the 30-34 age group. In the weekend she finished 4^th overall in the 30-34 age group in only her 4^th Triathlon and 1^st Half Ironman.

As can happen we also had some disappointments with Justin who won his age group here last year in the 20-24 had to retire with wheel issues after being at the pointy end of the race for much of the bike. Also Larisa Marsh who finished 6^th in her age group at Hawaii  Ironman in 2011 had a superb swim, but had to retire after her 2^nd puncture of the day on the bike. I know just as much as they both wanted success, to learn to accept disappointment is a valuable tool in sport to be equipped with and both I know will turn this back into success at the first opportunity.

Womens results

Hilary Wicks 1^st 35-39 age group (4^th overall)

Debbie White 4^th 30-34 age group

Angie Wall 11^th 30-34 age group

Anna Dempsey 20th 25-29  age group

Donna Swart 12^th 25-29 age group

Larisa Marsh (DNF) 2 punctures

Mens results

Josh Harrison 1^st 25-29 age group (7^th overall)

Mark Stringer 12^th 25-29 age group

Stephen Morriss 17^th 25-29 age group

David Thompson15th 30-34 age group

Chris Johnston 26^th 30-34 age group

Jess Peebles 40^th 30-34 age group

Hayden Goldsack 21^st 35-39 age group

Richard Knight 63^rd 35-39 age group

Vaughn Woods 13th 40-44 age group

Paul Dufty 19^th 40-44 age group

Steve Murray 55^th 40-44 age group

Ian Marshall 33^rd 45-49 age group

Andrew Davidson 6^th 55-59 age group

Justin Cragg (DNF) Wheel trouble

GO2MAX

 

 

 

Advertisement