After a shark sighting prompted race organizers to cancel the swim, defending champions Terenzo Bozzone of New Zealand and Melissa Hauschildt of Australia prevailed at a bike and run version of Ironman Western Australia in Busselton.

With the pros taking a rolling start of the bike leg in reverse order of seeding at 20 seconds intervals, race media was forced to follow where the competitors were physically and only later sort out where they stood in the overall ranking.

Men

In terms of overall time standing, Bozzone started with a 5th-fastest 4:15:58 bike split that put him about 5 minutes back of bike leader Konstantin Bachor of Germany, who was followed by Dougal Allan of New Zealand, Jonathan Shearer of Australia, and Tim Van Berkel of Australia.

New Ironman World Championship bike leg record holder Cameron Wurf surged through the field and took a 3 minute lead before dropping out at 133km with reported cramps.

Halfway through the marathon, Bozzone wrested the lead from Van Berkel and cruised to victory to a race-best 2:53:05 marathon that brought him to the finish in 7:12:30 with a 5:37 margin over fellow Kiwi Allan and 14:37 over 3rd place Van Berkel.

Bozzone’s victory caps a spectacular late season streak that includes a 6th place at the Ironman World Championship, a win at Ironman 70.3 Los Cabos, 2nd at the Island House Invitational Triathlon, and a 2nd at Ironman 70.3 Bahrain.

Women

Soon after the start of the bike leg, Yvonne Van Vlerken and Else Visser of the Netherlands took the physical lead, with Carrie Lester of Australia trailing in 3rd. Hauschildt and Mareen Hufe of Germany, who were top seeded thanks to their 1-2 finish at Busselton last year, were running 9th and 10th and moving up fast.

By 44km, Visser maintained the physical lead followed by Van Vlerken, Carrie Lester, and Hauschildt. At the 90km turnaround, Lester took the physical lead followed by Hauschildt and Hufe. After 133km, Hauschildt took the physical lead by 33 seconds over Lester and 1:53 over Hufe. At the 150km mark, Hauschildt increased her physical lead to 1:13 over Lester and 2:58 over Hufe.

After a women’s-best 4:37:42 bike leg, Hauschildt led the women into T2 by 1:18 over Lester (4:38:43 bike split), 4 minutes over Hufe, and 8 minutes over Van Vlerken.

After a women’s second-fastest 3:10:46 marathon split, Hauschildt finished in 7:52:04 with a 7:03 margin of victory over Lester (3:16:05 run) and 9:55 over Camilla Lindholm Borg of Sweden, who closed with a women’s-best 3:09:41 run. Van Vlerken took 4th place, 18:57 behind the winner.

Hauschildt’s vlctory was her second straight win after a season plagued by iliac artery surgeries and eight months of gradual recovery. In the second half of the year, Hauschildt finished 10th at Ironman 70.3 Worlds, 9th at ITU Long Distance Worlds, and 14th at the Ironman World championship before she regained her top form and won the Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship and Busselton.

Ironman Western Australia
Busselton, Western Australia
December 3, 2017
B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 7:12:30 T1 1:38 Cycle 4:15:58 T2 1:48 Run 2:53:05
2. Dougal Allan (NZL) 7:18:07 T1 1:47 Cycle 4:12:34 T2 1:53 Run 3:01:51
3. Tim Van Berkel (AUS) 7:27:07 T1 1:49 Cycle 4:13:05 T2 1:43 Run 3:10:29
4. Cameron Brown (NZL) 7:32:22 T1 1:47 Cycle 4:33:46 T2 3:05 Run 2:53:43
5. Jonathan Shearer (AUS) 7:35:32 T1 1:56 Cycle 4:15:50 T2 2:12 Run 3:15:33
6. Konstantin Bachor (GER) 7:39:40 T1 1:40 Cycle 4:10:48 T2 2:15 Run 3:24:56
7. Scott Defilippis (USA) 7:48:26 T1 2:13 Cycle 4:31:29 T2 3:01 Run 3:11:41
8. Levi Hauwert (AUS) 7:49:36 T1 2:03 Cycle 4:41:11 T2 2:01 Run 3:04:20 * M30-34
9. Per Bittner (GER) 7:50:36 T1 1:41 Cycle 4:31:41 T2 2:28 Run 3:14:41
10. Leigh Stabryla (AUS) 7:54:05 T1 2:00 Cycle 4:39:57 T2 2:06 Run 3:10:02

Women

1. Melissa Hauschildt (AUS) 7:52:04 T1 1:54 Cycle 4:37:42 T2 1:41 Run 3:10:46
2. Carrie Lester (AUS) 7:59:07 T1 2:11 Cycle 4:38:43 T2 2:06 Run 3:16:05
3. Camilla Lindholm Borg (SWE) 8:01:59 T1 2:08 Cycle 4:48:20 T2 1:48 Run 3:09:41
4. Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) 8:11:01 T1 1:47 Cycle 4:45:06 T2 1:47 Run 3:22:19
5. Meredith Hill (AUS) 8:24:01 T1 2:23 Cycle 4:56:21 T2 2:42 Run 3:22:32
6. Mareen Hufe (GER) 8:29:50 T1 2:01 Cycle 4:41:52 T2 2:52 Run 3:43:03
7. Kimberley McKinney (AUS) 8:43:48 T1 2:05 Cycle 4:50:46 T2 2:23 Run 3:48:32 *F25-29
8. Tracy Morrison (AUS) 8:46:07 T1 2:25 Cycle 5:08:11 T2 4:37 Run 3:30:52
9. Sophie Bubb (GBR) 8:48:05 T1 2:35 Cycle 5:13:26 T2 3:50 Run 3:28:12 * F35-39
10. Saskia Jurriaans (AUS) 8:52:29 T1 3:25 Cycle 5:13:19 T2 3:38 Run 3:32:06 * F30-34