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 RunElite Men’sBraden Currie (Wanaka) 3:40:13Jack Moody (Auckland) 3:43:42Sam Osborne (Rotorua) 3:47:02Matt Kerr (Coromandel) 3:48:55Lucas Duross (Waikato) 3:55:38Elite Women’sRebecca Clarke (Auckland) 4:15:53Simone Ackerman (Auckland) 4:20:54Deb Fuller (Tauranga) 4:24:25Emily McNaughton (Queenstown) 4:34:26Nikkola Matthews (Auckland) 4:35:02Aquabike Results
Distance 1.9km Swim 90km BikeOverall Men’sMike Crowe 2:41:43Stephen Sheldrake 2:41:50Michael Glynn 2:46:18Overall Women’sSarah Gorman 3:02:58Aleisha Williams 3:10:11Caitriona Conlan 3:11:15Mount Run – ResultsOverall Men’s – 5kmLiam Good 18:50Jack Mason 19:08Tarn Currie 19:59Overall Women’s – 5kmNatalie Hardaker 21:38Tracy Xu 21:57Phoebe Coers 24:01Overall Men’s – 10kmMatt Hill 37:03Mike Winstanley 38:50Tyler Jerram 38:58Overall Women’s – 10kmLucy Lawrie 49:41Chantal 51:10Esme Gould 51:21Overall Men’s – 21.1km Half MarathonHayden Wilde 1:14:36Toby Batchelor 1:14:53Iain McDonald 1:16:01Overall Women’s – 21.1km Half MarathonAlice Mason 1:23:57Ady McKenzie 1:28:17Jasmine Finney 1:31:00Pilot Bay Swim – ResultsOverall Men’s – 750mClint Scott 16:27Alex Cranswick 18:37Darren Kiwi 18:41Overall Women’s – 750mPoppy Richardson 16:06Kate Atchison 18:48Kaea Rameka 19:04Overall Men’s – 2kThomas Hansford 29:13Shem Banbury 35:36Mark Jewkes 36:58Overall Women’s – 2kJade Schumaucher 30:20Paige Rameka 33:28Sarah Hansford 33:41Overall Men’s – 3.7mJosiah Ney 45:12Quinn Boyle 45:17Oliver Larcombe 48:31Overall Women’s – 3.7kMadison Keightley 48:37Hannah Knighton 48:42Sophie Hay 48:45