Crawford win gives confidence for IRONMAN World Champs

Wanaka Super Mum Gina Crawford showed she is on course for next month’s IRONMAN World Championships after an outstanding victory in Australia today.

Crawford had to beat off a stern challenge from Japan’s former ITU Olympic star Kiyomi Niwata to win the IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast in Mooloolaba.

This follows the New Zealanders’ win in IRONMAN 70.3 Yeppoon in Queensland and second placing in the iron-distance race in Malaysia this month.

While current IRONMAN World Champion Pete Jacobs led from go-to-whoa to win the men’s race, Crawford had to dig deep during the run leg to secure the victory.

It was the sacrifice of spending time away from her son that helped her pull away from Japan’s Kiyomi Niwata late in the run, with the early leader Australian Lisa Marangon third.

“Kiyomi caught me at 10km and I didn’t think I could win, but it’s a big sacrifice for me to come here and race and be away from my son for three days so I wanted to win it for him. I gutsed it out and got the win,” Crawford said.

For Crawford the victory gives her the confidence she’ll need when she tackles the IRONMAN World Championships in Hawaii following on from her career-best seventh placing last year.

Crawford spent the swim and bike as the hunter chasing Marangon who built a 3min plus lead on the back of a strong swim bike combination.

After taking the lead early in the run she became the hunted as triple Olympian Niwata produced a blistering fast run to move her way into contention. Niwata and Crawford spent the majority of the second lap running side by side until Crawford made a move in the late stages building a 37sec lead, and was able to hold on for the win.

“I had an issue with my bike, the tyre was flat and I couldn’t pump it up and ran out of time so I just left it. On the ride I was working hard but not really getting anywhere, I was surprised I ran so well, and glad I gutsed it out and got the win,” she said.

A number of below par race results this year invited questions on Jacobs’s ability to defend his World Championship title in four weeks. But today in a world class time of 3hours 39mins and 58secs he answered those questions, winning the men’s race by seven minutes from fellow Australian Clayton Fettell.

“I was burning to get a win here, I’m getting in good shape to defend my title at Hawaii, and I felt awesome on the bike and built into the run,” Jacobs said.

Results, men: Pete Jacobs (AUS) 3:39.58, 1; Clayton Fettell (AUS) 3:47.07, 2; Casey Munro (AUS) 3:50.58, 3.
Women: Gina Crawford (NZL) 4:23.17, 1; Kiyomi Niwata (JPN) 4:24.16, 2; Lisa Marangon (AUS) 4:33.16, 3.