Bozzone stuns in Bahrain as Pallant comes closes to victory

Sarah Crowley (AUS) denies World Duathlon Champion top spot in Bahrain

While she may well be the two-time and reigning ITU Duathlon World Champion, it's not an unreasonable statement to say that Great Britain's Emma Pallant cames close what may well have been the biggest win of her career to date on Saturday, when finishing a close second at Ironman 70.3 Bahrain, the Middle East Championship.

Emma Pallant

One of the leading five athletes that reached T2 within a minute of each other (along with Caroline Steffen (SUI), Diana Riesler (GER), Sarah Crowley (AUS) and Tine Deckers (BEL), at 15km into the run Pallant was in front on the half marathon, holding a narrow lead over the Aussie, Crowley. She couldn't quite hold it to the finish line at the Bahrain International Circuit with the race best 1:20:40 run from Crowley (Pallant clocked 1:22:21), bringing the Australian home first with a winning margin of 1:26. Nonetheless, the British athlete earned $10,000 of the total $100,000 championship prize purse in what has been a busy period of late-season racing.

Now really starting to find her feet at this format and distance of racing, she really does appear to have what it takes to be a contender at the top rank of racing in this format around the world.

Related Article: Alice does well in Bahrain...

As you may have already read (see her race report on the link above), Alice Hector was a strong seventh, with fellow brits Natalie Seymour and Caroline Livesey (both pictured below), 12th and 13th respectively.

Natalie Seymour (12th)

Caroline Livesey (13th)

Terenzo Bozzone performs a back-to-back masterclass

Six days ago New Zealand's Terenzo Bozzone produced his bes ever performance over the Ironman distance when winning Ironman Western Australia in course record time, to join the elite Sub-8 Club.

Tired from that? Well, it didn't show. Speaking to Bahrain Endurance 13 Media, Bozzone commented. "I won Ironman Western Australia last weekend and felt my body starting to come back the last few days. This was really cool. I haven’t been able to stand on the start line here in Bahrain but was able to make it happen this year."

Make it happen he did, the men's race can basically be explained by his bike split - 1:56:48 - versus a host of 2:01 / 2:02's from his nearest rivals. While he was closed down on the run, his 1:15:16 half marathon was still enough to hold off the 1:11:25 of Germany's long-time ITU athlete, Steffen Justus.

IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain Middle East Championship - Saturday 10th December 2016
1.9km / 90km / 21.1km

DNF - Stuart Hayes (withdrew after bike due to calf strain injury)

12th Natalie Seymour - 4:26:12
13th Caroline Livesey - 4:27:57
DQ Frankie Sanjana

@totkat a few of us were sent the wrong way on the bike course, making it shorter so resulting in DQ 😢

— Frankie Sanjana (@frankiesanjana) December 10, 2016

GB Age-Group Success

F30-34 - Katherine Budd - 3rd
F35-39 - Lisa Hancox - 1st
F40-44 - Rosie Guy - 1st
F45-49 - Sioned Taylor - 1st
F45-49 - Clare Farrell - 3rd

M18-24 - George Steel - 3rd
M30-34 - Luke Matthews - 2nd
M35-39 - Chris Standidge - 1st (11th overall, first AG athlete overall) - 3:57:37
M40-44 - Mark Livesey - 1st
M50-54 - Chris Knight - 1st
M70-74 - Allan Lawrence - 2nd