CLEARWATER — A broken wrist didn’t stop New Zealander Terenzo Bozzone from smashing a course record and winning Saturday’s Ironman World Championship 70.3.
"The conditions were perfect,'' said Bozzone, a 23-year-old who narrowly missed making his country’s Olympic team this year. "Everything went just right.''
Bozzone, who won three other 70.3 events this year, fell off his bike in Hawaii four weeks ago.
"I just took the splint off,'' he said. "I felt it a little bit in the swim, but I guess the pain kept me from feeling the rest of my body hurting.''
Bozzone’s time of 3:40:10 for the 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run was more than two minutes faster than reigning world champion Andy Potts time from 2007.
Potts, a 31-year-old from Colorado, was still recovering from last month’s Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, which was double the distance of the Clearwater event.
Potts, who finished seventh overall in Kona, was first out of the water, setting a new course record of 21:44 for the swim leg, but faded as the morning dragged on. "I’m toast,'' he said after finishing in sixth place.
Bozzone was part of a tight group hot on Potts’ heels as he exited the 70-degree water just south of Clearwater’s Big Pier 60. The water was flat, ideal for a long swim. But the rising sun caused a slight problem for the leaders as they swam due east on the last leg.
"It was hard to see,'' said Joanna Zeiger, the woman’s winner. "You could see some people were going off course.''
About an hour into the race, a police officer clocked the leaders traveling a 28-mile per hour. Potts lost his lead around mile 17 of the bike ride, and over the next half hour, it changed hands several times.
Several of the top pros entered the transition area together, with Bozzone the Kiwi getting out first on the run course, which took the triathletes over the memorial Causeway Bridge four times.
"On the second half of the run, I began to suspect that I might have put too much into the bike,'' Bozzone said. "I was really starting to feel it.''
German Andreas Raelert knew he was several minutes behind Bozzone when he got off the bike, so he decided to pour everything he had into the run.
"I had one chance,'' said the 32-year-old from Hamburg. "It was all or nothing.''
Raelert, who won the Ironman 70.3 in Monaco in September, made up nearly two minutes on the run, but that still wasn’t enough to catch the New Zealander and he finished 32 seconds behind the winner.
"I felt really strong,'' Raelert said. "But that last time across the bridge took it out of me.''
Australian Richie Cunningham came in one minute and five seconds behind Realert for third place.
"Perfect conditions...a very fast race,'' said the 35-year-old. "There were some points on the bike where we were just red lining...all I could do was just hang on.''
Zeiger, the womens’ winner, finished with a time of 4:02:49, just under five minutes faster than the winning time from 2007.
"I was riding in with a group of really fast cyclists,'' said the 38-year-old from Colorado. "I knew I had to just stay with them and then push it on the run. But that last hill was brutal.''
-- Terry Tomalin, Times Staff Writer
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