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Braden Curries Exceptional Podium Finish Ironman World Champs
“I’m well cooked, but stoked”.
Honest words, spoken in classic Kiwi dialect by New Zealand’s own Braden Currie, just after crossing the finish line at the Ironman World Championships in St George, Utah today.
Currie was a force to be reckoned with on the hot, hard and hilly course where athletes endured over 2000m of elevation on the bike and 450m on the run.
Currie ‘threw it all out there’ so much so that it took most of the day for Olympic Gold Medallist Kristian Blummenfelt to close the 3+ minute run lead the Coast to Coast Champ had on him. About halfway through the run, when temps were now soaring well into the 30s, Blummenfelt passed Currie and crossed the finish line in 1st place.
Currie held strong in second place until the last quarter mile when Canadian, Lionel Sanders gut-wrenchingly overtook at the last minute, Currie didn’t have enough in the tank to stick with Sanders for a sprint finish stating it was an 'absolutely incredible performance' had by Sanders.
“It was an awesome day of racing. Everything fell my way, I had a great swim and we had a fantastic group on the bike that was so honest, consistent and settled – you could just see that we rolled away from the others without having to sink ourselves. I ran the way I always do and gave it as much as I could. I didn’t feel amazing but looking at the times now, they were still pretty fast,” said Currie.
The Methven-raised champion, today, secured his second shot for the top of the podium at the Kona Ironman World Championships happening in October this year with a third-place finishing time of 07:54:19 behind Lionel Sanders (2nd) at 07:54:03 and Kristian Blummenfelt (1st) who finished in 7:49:16.
Curries' return to the world stage after nearly three years on hiatus resulted in a stellar performance and this is a testament that anything is possible on race day. But if one thing's for sure – the father of two has everything it takes to take out the title in Kona this year, we watch on with anticipation.
“After training for the unknown for almost three years now, today was a great reward,” Currie said.
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