Joe Skipper and Teresa Adam were the winners at Ironman New Zealand held over the weekend in Taupo.
Both had finished runner-up twice in Taupo, but both finished on the top podium in 2020.
Skipper came out the of the water 6mintes behind the leaders but quickly dominated on the bike leg. He biked the 180km in 4hours 13minutes. Out in the lead, there was nothing stopping the British athlete as he held on to win from Mike Phillips and Braden Currie.
In the women’s race, Adams was superb in winning her first Ironman New Zealand title. Her success, like Skipper, was built on a superb bike. She set a new bike record of 4hrs 36 minutes – beating the old mark by nearly 13 minutes.
Five-time champion Meredith Kessler (USA) finished in second place, with Judith Corachan Vaquera (ESP) in third.
Finally, in the 40-44 year old 70.3 race (2km swim, 90km bike and 21km run), Kiwi Kids editor Shem Banbury will be slightly disappointed with his showing.
Following an okay swim of 33minutes, he produced a solid bike effort of 2hr 39minutes for the 90km course. However, his legs let him down on his usually favoured run leg to finish in a time of 5hrs and 8 minutes. Banbury will no doubt continue his quest for the perfect half ironman next year.
