Brown & Lawn Face Stern Tests At Bonita Ironman NZ
Sunday, 22nd January 2006
Triathlon stars Cameron Brown and Jo Lawn face their toughest test if they are to further embellish their remarkable records in the 22nd annual Bonita Ironman New Zealand.
Brown, who is chasing a world-first six straight victories, will face the current world champion and some talented international champions at Taupo on 4 March. And Lawn, hoping to emulate the great Erin Bakers four-win record, takes on a host of Ironman winners including Australian rival Kate Major.
Brown, 33, can fairly lay claim to the world's top ranked Ironman over the past five years, which has included four podium finishes at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. While he has been the bridesmaid at Hawaii and the prestigious Ironman Germany, Brown has owned New Zealand since his first victory there in 2001.
He will need to be on song himself to make it six of the best in Taupo in March. The main challenge will come from the outstanding Ukraine triathlete Victor Zyemtsev, who is making his first venture to the southern hemisphere. Zyemtsev is the current ITU World Long Distance Champion and won Ford Ironman USA Coeur d'Alene last year. He has also won Ironman Austria three times in a row, claiming all his victories, like Brown, with tremendous runs. He has run under 2hrs 50min for each of his wins including a brilliant 2:41 best in Austria.
There will be some tough nuts on the bike like Sweden's Bjorn Andersson, who was third in 2004, and Estonias Ain Alar Juhanson, the of winner Ironman Lanzarote. Also competing are some talented all-rounders like Frenchman Gael Mainard, fourth last year, and Canadian Jonathan Caron, second in Korea.
The Kiwi competition will come from Kieran Doe, 25, who was sixth last year, the much improved international Chris McDonald, and swim record holder Brent Foster, who went top 20 in Hawaii. The Aussie charge comes from Luke McKenzie, a super talented youngster up from the Olympic distance ranks.
"This is the deepest and strongest field that I have come up against in the last five years in Taupo", Brown said. "I can't worry about them though. I have got to run my own race. I will need to have the perfect day like last year, to get out of the swim near Kieran Doe and Bjorn Andersson. That will be a key for me to be able to get with them out of the water and on the bike. Then it will be up to the European's to try to run me down from behind."
Lawn has the chance to grow her impressive record of three wins in succession and join the great Erin Baker as a four-time winner in New Zealand. Standing in her way is her great rival, the ebullient Major who has pipped Lawn at the last two Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. Lawn, a former Commonwealth Games cyclist and representative tennis player, was fifth at Hawaii in 2004 and fourth last year - on both occasions Major passed her late on the run.
Major, like Lawn, made her mark in a different sport. She was on the world professional squash circuit for six years, rising to 20th in the world rankings before retiring at age 22. She then went to university where she found triathlon or it found her. Last year she went fulltime and has chalked up some great results with Ironman wins at Lake Placid and Arizona, a string of half Ironman podiums and those two third-placings in Hawaii in 2004 and 2005.
"We have had some great battles. Honestly I don't know what game she will bring to Taupo. She won at Ironman USA with a record bike split where she beat me. And she ran a 3:02 marathon at Hawaii this year, said Lawn. I guess Kate thinks she has a mental advantage over me. But this is different. She is coming to my country, to my second home here in Taupo, and she is coming to my race. To me that's three strikes against her already. I own this race. I've won it three times in a row and she is going to have to take it off me. I am excited and looking forward to the challenge."
The Australian charge will not only come from Major. The 38-year-old Sarah Fien, the former professional cyclist, will mount a challenge, buoyed by her victory in Ironman Japan last year while the veteran Susan Peter has her 16th Ironman start and is a former winner of Ironman Malaysia.
There's plenty of other endurance distance winners in the field like the 2002 New Zealand winner Karyn Ballance, 2004 Japan champion Yoko Hori, Ironman UK champion Rebecca Preston from Australia and Ironman Malaysia winner Marilyn MacDonald from Canada. The wild card may be Fiona Docherty, who will have hometown support from the local Taupo community. Docherty was third at the inaugural Ironman Western Australia and the 2003 World Long Distance Duathlon Champion at Zofingen.
And then theres a super talented Scot, Bella Comerford, a three time champion at Ironman Florida in the last four years, who is back to show her failure in Taupo last year was just an aberration.
The official seedings will be announced at the end of the month.
Article Source: IM New Zealand for Ironmanlive.com on Thusday, 19 January 2006