BRADEN CURRIE TO RACE IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPS IN UTAH THIS WEEKEND

Ironman Braden Currie is back racing on the world stage and has his sights set on the top of the podium at the Ironman World Championships in St George, Utah this Sunday (NZT).

It’s been a long time coming for the Kiwi Dad after pandemic induced cancellations and international travel restrictions brought big race events like this to a halt for just shy of three years.

In 2022, Currie has two shots at the prestigious title with this weekend’s event going down in history as the first time it has been held outside of its birthplace - Kona, Hawaii.
 
Although Currie doesn’t yet have his qualifying spot for the second Ironman World Championship event (due to race cancellations), which will return to Kona in October, he hopes to gain this at St George this weekend.
 
“I’m definitely looking forward to it. There has been more space to get organized and effectively manage the lead into this race. I feel as though we have left no stone unturned which is comforting and it's always great to line up with the best in the world because it’s guaranteed to be the ultimate test of my own personal ability”.
 
Currie states that amidst significant race cancellations, staying motivated towards training for the unknown has not been an issue.
 
“We have been lucky to have a good handful of races in New Zealand over the summers and it’s been broken up in a way where I never knew the big events (even the international ones) weren’t going to happen until they typically cancelled around a month out, so in my mind, these races were always happening and  I continued to train and plan as if they were which has helped in keeping my mind off the fact that I haven’t really raced a huge event on the world stage for two and half years”.
 
The St. George edition of Ironman World Champs is set to serve up an interesting course with varied terrain and a peak altitude of around 1700 meters at the top of the bike course, hence why Curries' first stop in the USA was Cedar City.
 
“We’ve had a really good lead-in. I’ve been in the USA for two weeks now, based in Cedar City which is around 1700m altitude. The concept is that I will shake those effects of altitude and feel pretty good at the top of the bike course and hopefully not be hurting as much as the others”.
 
With Curries' history in off-road racing, the ability to quickly adapt to changing course features falls well within the former multi-sport star's forte. Curries dominant emotion towards the nearing event is one of excitement, all whilst acknowledging the challenge that lies ahead, especially with the company he will keep on the start line.  

“I’m in a good stage of my career and have developed enough experience now to race well and not be affected so much by the pressure of a world championship event. But I’d say there are ten guys that clearly come to mind that could take this out just as much as I could and then on top of that, there is a whole other field of athletes who I know could take the podium or make the top ten if they have a blinder of a day. I think it’s quite cool that this year, I can’t really pick one person that is obviously dominant. It will make for an exciting race and at the end of the day, it will come down to those microelements on race day. My goal is to simply look after myself out there and stay as strong as I can”.
 
Great weather has been on Curries' side, along with training partner Matt Kerr in his final block before taper time. A fresh start is expected on race day with water temperatures expected to come in at around 15 degrees followed by peak temperatures in the thirties around about when the first group of pro athletes commence the run leg.
 
There is an estimated 30-40 New Zealand athletes set to race this weekend with Kyle Smith in the pro field and the remainder age group athletes.