Today’s Tauranga Half produced two outstanding elite races, with Braden Currie taking out the men’s title for third time, while Rebecca Clark posted her first victory in the women’s section of this iconic multisport event.

The 33rd running of the Tauranga Half drew outstanding elite fields, who competed in near perfect conditions at Mount Maunganui.

Currie led the men’s field for most of the race, to record victory in a time of 3:40:13. He had an outstanding swim, opening up a 32 second gap on Sam Osborne and Mark Bowstead out of the water at Pilot Bay. He was caught by former event winner Mike Phillips on the 90km bike leg, with Phillip’s time of 1:58:47, the second quickest bike leg ever at the Tauranga Half.

Braden Currie started the 21.1km run leg right on the heels of Mike Phillips, before opening up a comprehensive lead on the first lap of the run course. Currie was able to maintain this lead to head off the fast finishing Jack Moody who had an outstanding half-marathon to move him from 5th to 2nd during the run leg.

This is Currie’s third win at the Tauranga Half following victories in 2016 & 2017. He joins NZ multisport icons Cameron Brown & Tony O’Hagan as the only three-time men’s winners of the event.

In describing his victory, Currie said – “I felt good all day. It was an ideal situation being able to run my own race, and not have things dictated by anyone else. I had a great swim, and was then able to ride with the right tempo on the bike leg. Mike Phillips caught me about an hour into the bike leg, and I rode with him for the rest of bike journey. The run leg went well, and I was thankful to have a good lead on Jack Moody at the start of the run.”

Braden Currie was pleased to be able to race in front of a NZ crowd after ongoing challenges securing an MIQ spot to get back into NZ after competing overseas in 2021. After today’s event, he said – “I am grateful for the opportunity to do events at the moment, and the crowds here are always fantastic.”

The women’s elite race saw a new winner join the illustrious Tauranga Half honours board, with Rebecca Clark stepping on the top spot of the podium after being one of the events’ most consistent performers in recent years.

Clark was 2nd in 2020, and 3rd in 2021 & 2019, and was a very popular winner at Mount Maunganui today. She dominated the women’s field to take her first Tauranga Half title. An outstanding swimmer, Clark swam the 1.9k swim leg at Pilot Bay in 25:19, two seconds behind Simone Ackerman who was competing in her first long distance triathlon, after finishing 18th at the Olympic distance at the Tokyo games last year, representing South Africa.

Rebecca Clark was outstanding on the bike leg, recording 2:19 for the 90k distance, eight minutes faster than Ackerman. The South African who now lives on Auckland’s North Shore pulled back some of the deficit on the run leg, but this was not enough to reel in Rebecca Clark who held on for a 5 minute victory.

The Tauranga Half was the headline event for the Fulton Hogan Mount Festival of Multisport which also featured the inaugural Pilot Bay Swim, Aquabike event which is a swim followed by a bike leg, and the Mount Run which was held over 5km, 10km and half marathon distances. There were some outstanding performances in these other events, including a victory in the Mount Run’s half marathon by Tokyo bronze medalist, Hayden Wilde.

Tauranga Half Results – Saturday, 22 January 2022

Distance 2km Swim 90km Bike 21km Run

Elite Men’s

1. Braden Currie (Wanaka) 3:40:13
2. Jack Moody (Auckland) 3:43:42
3. Sam Osborne (Rotorua) 3:47:02
4. Matt Kerr (Coromandel) 3:48:55
5. Lucas Duross (Waikato) 3:55:38

Elite Women’s

1. Rebecca Clarke (Auckland) 4:15:53
2. Simone Ackerman (Auckland) 4:20:54
3. Deb Fuller (Tauranga) 4:24:25
4. Emily McNaughton (Queenstown) 4:34:26
5. Nikkola Matthews (Auckland) 4:35:02

Aquabike Results

Distance 1.9km Swim 90km Bike

Overall Men’s

1. Mike Crowe 2:41:43
2. Stephen Sheldrake 2:41:50
3. Michael Glynn 2:46:18

Overall Women’s

1. Sarah Gorman 3:02:58
2. Aleisha Williams 3:10:11
3. Caitriona Conlan 3:11:15

Mount Run – Results

Overall Men’s – 5km

1. Liam Good 18:50
2. Jack Mason 19:08
3. Tarn Currie 19:59

Overall Women’s – 5km

1. Natalie Hardaker 21:38
2. Tracy Xu 21:57
3. Phoebe Coers 24:01

Overall Men’s – 10km

1. Matt Hill 37:03
2. Mike Winstanley 38:50
3. Tyler Jerram 38:58

Overall Women’s – 10km

1. Lucy Lawrie 49:41
2. Chantal 51:10
3. Esme Gould 51:21

Overall Men’s – 21.1km Half Marathon

1. Hayden Wilde 1:14:36
2. Toby Batchelor 1:14:53
3. Iain McDonald 1:16:01

Overall Women’s – 21.1km Half Marathon

1. Alice Mason 1:23:57
2. Ady McKenzie 1:28:17
3. Jasmine Finney 1:31:00

Pilot Bay Swim – Results

Overall Men’s – 750m

1. Clint Scott 16:27
2. Alex Cranswick 18:37
3. Darren Kiwi 18:41

Overall Women’s – 750m

1. Poppy Richardson 16:06
2. Kate Atchison 18:48
3. Kaea Rameka 19:04

Overall Men’s – 2k

1. Thomas Hansford 29:13
2. Shem Banbury 35:36
3. Mark Jewkes 36:58

Overall Women’s – 2k

1. Jade Schumaucher 30:20
2. Paige Rameka 33:28
3. Sarah Hansford 33:41

Overall Men’s – 3.7m

1. Josiah Ney 45:12
2. Quinn Boyle 45:17
3. Oliver Larcombe 48:31

Overall Women’s – 3.7k

1. Madison Keightley 48:37
2. Hannah Knighton 48:42
3. Sophie Hay 48:45

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