Australia’s Max Neumann just claimed his third victory in a row at the Ironman Asia-Pasific Championships in Cairns. In the women’s race, that honor was for Australia’s Sarah Crowley, who left no space for doubt and took a big win. Neumann shared the podium with New-Zealand’s Braden Currie and Australia’s Sam Appleton. The women’s race had an Australian clean sweep, with Radka Kahlefeldt and Kylie Simpson taking second and third.
Men’s race
That Neumann would lead after the swim came as no surprise. With a time of 48:46 minutes, he was first into T1. Currie and Appleton followed within a handful of seconds. That deficit soon disappeared in the saddle, when the three found each other and created a little group.
Just before T2, Neumann let go of his two competitors. That saw Currie and Appleton head onto the run course in first place, 30 seconds in front of Neumann. While Currie – chased by Neumann – extended his lead to two minutes during the first 25K of the run, in the second half Neumann showed to have some energy left as he closed the gap. Running a marathon of 2:41:13 hours, Neumann broke the tape, Currie hung in for second and Appleton took third.
Women’s race
Just like in the men’s race, the first and second woman across the finish line, were already in that same position after the swim. After 54 minutes, Crowley was first out of the water with Kahlefeldt right in her feet. On the bike, Crowley disappeared. Over 180K, she created an advantage of 5:24 minutes to Kahlefeldt.
In the first half-marathon, Kahlefeldt shrunk that gap to Crowley with a minute, but then it was done for her. Crowley ended up taking the victory with a finish time of 8:59:41 hours and a marathon of 3:12:19 hours. Kahlefeldt took second (+5:36) and Simpson took third (+19:41).
