Four and a half months after suffering life threatening injuries when hit by a logging truck while training on his bike, Terenzo Bozzone of New Zealand made a spectacular return to racing with a victory at Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney.

Capping a brilliant year of racing after the birth of her daughter, Radka Kahlefeldt of the Czech Republic earned her fourth 70.3 win of the year at Western Sydney.

Bozzone and Aussie Sam Appleton fought a fierce duel through the swim and bike legs before Bozzone ran away to victory with a second-best 1:15:29 half marathon run that brought him to the finish in 3:43:35 with a 2:12 margin of victory over Appleton. Australian Casey Munro closed hard with a race-best 1:15:03 run to take third, 10 minutes behind the winner.

Bozzone was second out of the water with a 24:47 swim split that put him one second behind Sam Douglas and one second ahead of Appleton. He led the field into T2 with a race-best 2:01:09 split which gave him an 8 seconds lead on Appleton before unleashing a superb run that was 2 minutes faster than Appleton.

Bozzone had been on a hot streak early this year with wins at Ironman New Zealand, Ironman 70.3 Bariloche, Ironman 70.3 Campeche and Ironman 70.3 Busselton and was considered a strong contender for Kona before the hit-and-run accident which left him with a concussion, head and facial injuries and a broken cheek bone.

Kahlefeldt combined a women’s-fastest 28:58 swim, women’s-fastest 2:20:52 bike leg and a women’s second-fastest 1:21:39 run split to finish in 4:12:46 with a 3:59 margin of victory over Hannah Wells of New Zealand and 6:50 over 3rd place finisher Grace Thek of Australia.

With her win at Western Sydney, Kahlefeldt thus added to previous 2018 70.3 wins at the Asia Pacific Championship, Davao and Vietnam, as well as runner-up finishes at Liuzhou and Taiwan and 5th at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in South Africa.

Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney
Sydney, Australia
November 24, 2018
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 3:43:35 S 24:56 T1 1:10 B 2:01:09 T2 00:53 R 1:15:29
2. Sam Appleton (AUS) 3:45:47 S 24:57 T1 1:12 B 2:01:15 T2 00:56 R 1:17:29
3. Casey Munro (AUS) 3:53:35 S 25:00 T1 1:05 B 2:11:37 T2 00:52 R 1:15:03
4. David Mainwaring (AUS) 3:56:06 S 26:31 T1 1:13 B 2:09:51 T2 1:02 R 1:17:31
5. Sam Douglas (AUS) 3:56:52 S 25:09 T1 1:03 B 2:09:47 T2 00:54 R 1:20:01

Women

1. Radka Kahlefeldt (CZE) 4:12:46 S 27:42 T1 1:17 B 2:20:52 T2 00:58 R 1:21:39
2. Hannah Wells (NZL) 4:16:45 S 28:23 T1 1:16 B 2:23:36 T2 00:52 R 1:22:41
3. Grace Thek (AUS) 4:19:36 S 27:59 T1 1:26 B 2:29:11 T2 00:52 R 1:20:10
4. Laura Dennis (AUS) 4:22:54 S 27:58 T1 1:04 B 2:24:11 T2 00:54 R 1:28:48
5. Jessica Mitchell (AUS) 4:39:55 S 32:56 T1 1:49 B 2:33:33 T2 1:48 R 1:29:51