Chelsea Sodaro continues her return to the top with huge win at Ironman New Zealand
Australia's Steve McKenna takes men's race at the 40th anniversary event in Taupo
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
American Chelsea Sodaro (pictured above at last year’s Ironman World Championship Kona), surprised the triathlon world with her impressive win at the 2022 Ironman World Championship, but never seemed to get back to that same form through most of last year. Things seem to be back on track for the speedy mom, though – she set the stage for a better year in 2024 with a win at Ironman 70.3 Tasmania, and really signalled that she’s ready to race with the best with a huge win today at Ironman New Zealand, despite having to serve a five minute penalty on the bike.
Sodaro was part of a group of five that came out of the water together, led by fellow American Jocelyn McCauley. Also in that lead group were Meredith Kessler (USA), Regan Hollioake (AUS) and Barbara Riveros (CHI). Two other pre-race favourites, Amelia Watkinson (NZL) and Els Visser (NED) found themselves in chase mode as they hit T1 – the pair were over five minutes behind starting the bike.
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Sodaro and McCauley would pull clear of the rest of the women on the bike – through 90 km they were four minutes up on Hollioake and almost seven minutes ahead of Visser and Kessler. Sodaro would have to serve a five minute penalty, though, so through the 119 km check point she was suddenly 4:47 behind McCauley.
By the end of the 180 km bike McCauley was still in front, but her lead was down to 2:38 over Sodaro, with Visser at 6:37, Hollioake at 6:49, Kessler at 12:03 and Wakinson at 14:12.
Once the marathon started it was clear that Sodaro was back at her best as she blasted through the course. By 6.1 km she was almost two minutes up on McCauley, and she would continue to charge through the course. The former collegiate running star would put together a 2:49:59 marathon split (a new course record) to finish the race in 8:40:07 – also breaking Teresa Adam’s previous course record of 8:40:29 set in 2020.
Visser would run her way to second in 8:57:34, with McCauley hanging on for the final spot on the podium in 8:58:23. Hollioake took fourth in 8:59:19, which should get her a qualifying slot for Nice through a roll down as Sodaro has an automatic qualifying slot thanks to her win in 2022. Watkinson rounded out the top five in 9:14:02.
McKenna runs his way to the win
While Sodaro was in front early in the run, the men’s race came down to the final five km as Australian Steve McKenna, who won Ironman Australia last year (see below) managed to overtake the Netherlands’ Nick Heldoorn (son of Ironman legend Frank Heldoorn) to take a hard fought win.
McKenna and Heldoorn were part of a four-man lead group out of the water along with American Justin Metzler who were chasing Australian Michael Boult into T1. Once on the bike, though, it was Kiwi Mike Phillips who would power to the front, eventually hitting T2 with a two minute lead on Heldoorn and McKenna, with Metzler another minute behind.
Phillips hung on to the lead through 16 km, but McKenna then made his move, opening up a gap of 1:13 on Phillips and 1:16 on Heldoorn through the halfway point of the marathon. With 10 km to go Heldoorn made his move, and eventually opened up a 30 second gap on McKenna, but wasn’t able to hold on through the entire marathon. McKenna would surge by and eventually hit the finish line in 8:01:13 after running a 2:43:31 marathon. Heldoorn would take second in 8:03:46, while New Zealand’s Ben Hamilton (8:08:13) would get past Phillips (8:10:58) to round out the podium. American Colin Such would take fifth in 8:18:40.
