Kiwi and Queenslander win Ironman 70.3 Geelong

NEW ZEALAND’S Sam Osborne and Queenslander Ellie Salthouse were crowned IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong champions after braving the elements over the weekend.

Before Osborne’s win on Sunday, he had never been on an IRONMAN 70.3 podium before, and he took the win in 3:41:25, only 11 seconds clear of Great Britain’s Thomas Bishop.

Osborne said he could hardly believe he won, considering the field he was up against.

“I came off the bike and this was the first time that I’ve come off the bike at the front, I come from an off-road tri background, so I’m used to the mountain bike so the aero bars can be punishing but I’ve spent heaps of time on the TT bike recently just trying to get used to it which I think paid off.

“This win is huge. I said this year that I’m going to really focus on the long course stuff, it’s not every year, and I will probably never in my career have the World Championships in New Zealand again.

“I want to race the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships at home so to come out, get a world’s slot and win my first IRONMAN 70.3 it’s crazy, I didn’t think it would happen, not this early.”

Salthouse claimed her second IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong victory, crossing the line in 4:07:18 ahead of the event’s two previous winners, Melbourne’s Grace Thek and Dutch athlete Lotte Wilms.

“It’s always incredible here, I love that you get to run through the main part of Geelong a couple of times on each lap, you get to have all of the crowd support, all of the family support, everyone cheering, the run course is unlike any other, it’s pretty much lined with spectators the whole way,” Salthouse said.

“The bike course is a little bit lonely out there but there’s always so people up the top of the hill, it spurs you on a little bit at the halfway point.

“It’s always nice to start the year with a win but now I need to keep

on going.

“I started the season a little bit later than usual, just because we have the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in December, that’s a lot later than normal, I wanted to start my year later and slower and build up from here,” she said.

For full results, head to ironman.com/im703-geelong