Profile Athlete Jo Lawn wins IM New Zealand

Brown and Lawn break records in Taupo new

Written by: Herbert Krabel
Date: Fri Mar 05 2010

Cameron Brown won the 2010 Bonita Ironman New Zealand in 8:21:52 and that gave him a record ninth title in NZ, a feat previously not done by any other athlete at any other Ironman competition before. Joanna Lawn captured her 7th title in a course record time of 9:14:35.

The men

After NZ Prime Minister John Key fired the start gun, the Pros entered Lake Taupo in seemingly perfect weather conditions and before too long Kieran Doe moved to the front of the pack. Doe kept the lead throughout the swim and exited the water in 45:38. 2009 runner-up Terenzo Bozzone was 2nd into transition, 51 seconds later and 8–time Ironman New Zealand Champion Cameron Brown was 8th in a time of 49:26.

Bozzone quickly caught Doe and the two rode together for a few miles before Bozzone rode away. The distance between Bozzone and Doe steadily grew and by km 60 his lead was 6:10, but by now Brown had moved into second place just a second up on Doe. The lead grew to over 7:30 about halfway through the bike, but by 140k the gap was back down to about 6 minutes. Over the last 40k the lead shrunk even faster and by the time Bozzone hit T2 his lead over Brown and Doe was down to just under a minute. Onlookers though reported that Bozzone eased up towards the end on the bike and appeared to be in great spirits.

Bozzone had a swift transition and was off on the run. Doe also moved through T2 fast, but he kept looking over his shoulder to see where the defending champion was, and surely enough Brown ran past him quite swiftly. Brown then had his sights set on Bozzone and caught him by the 10k mark. From that point on Brown calmly pulled away and by the 30k mark his lead was up to 4 minutes. Making it look relatively easy, Brown crossed the line in 8:21:52 and captured his record 9th Ironman New Zealand title. Actually no one else has ever won the same Ironman event nine times so this is quite an amazing feat. More