Hamilton triathlete Graham O’Grady stormed to a huge win at the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman over the weekend while Jo Lawn topped the women’s field for the third time in her career.
Second out of the water and first off the bike, 28-year-old O’Grady took control on the run to record his debut victory at the Mount with a time of 3:49:45.
"This is definitely the highlight of my career so far,” O’Grady told the Bay of Plenty Times.
"I’ve put in so much hard work over the last few months. To beat such a quality field here at home with so much support is just fantastic.”
Under clear blue skies, things started well for O’Grady in the swim where he and Kieran Doe swam side by side and built a solid lead over the chasing pack.
Alongside Doe again for the entire 90km bike, O’Grady pushed hard on the second lap of the 21km run while Doe faded.
O’Grady was chased hard by Callum Millward, Cameron Brown, Clark Ellice and last year’s winner Michael Poole while Doe finished up in sixth place.
In the women’s field, Jo Lawn played a tactically perfect race and took the lead late in the run to win over a minute ahead of Anna Cleaver in a time of 4:15:38.
Biding her time within the top five for the entire race, Lawn turned on the jets for the run with the fastest overall run time of 1:25:47 over 21km.
Cleaver held on for second with Janine Simpson third, Rachael Paxton fourth and Michelle Bremer rounding out fifth.
Port of Tauranga 2011 results
Men
1. Graham O’Grady (Hamilton) 3:49:45
2. Callum Millward (Auckland) 3:49:55
3. Cameron Brown (Auckland) 3:50:30
4. Clark Ellice (New Plymouth) 3:54:16
5.Michael Poole (Auckland) 3:55:18
Women
1. Joanna Lawn (Auckland) 4:15:38
2. Anna Cleaver (Sydney) 4:16:42
3. Janine Simpson (Tauranga) 4:22:47
4. Rachael Paxton (Australia) 4:24:16
5. Michelle Bremer (Auckland) 4:25:28
