WA hot-shot Nick Thompson claims biggest win of career after Tassie’s Cam Wurf suffers blowout
Local hero Cam Wurf was headed for victory in Ironman 70.3 Tasmania until a major malfunction torpedoed his attempt. Here’s what happened:
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It was the best swim and run of his half-ironman career but a flat tire on the bike while leading cost Tasmania’s home-town hero Cameron Wurf his shot at winning the second annual Ironman 70.3 Tasmania event in Hobart on Sunday.
Rain made the course slippery for the 800 entries _ 600 individual competitors and 200 team members _ and the medical teams had their hands full attending bike crashes, including one by an official motorcycle.
The world-class bike handling that earned Wurf a place on the INEOS Grenadiers professional cycling team kept him upright despite struggling with a flat tire for most of the 90km ride.
It allowed Western Australian hot-shot Nick Thompson to jump clear and win the half-ironman in 3 hours 54 minutes 10 seconds _ the 70.3 referring to the total distance in miles (113.0 km), consisting of a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, a 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and a 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run.
Second was Victorian professional Mitch Kibby (3h58m7s) with Wurf (4h0m1s) claiming the other podium position.
“I’m really happy with my race,” Wurf said. “It was definitely the best swim and run I’ve ever had.”
Wurf led on the bike leg until he felt his rear tire deflating.
“If I stopped to change it I would have lost my chance to compete for the win,” he said.
“It was dead-flat for the last 15km and I’ve got some decent skills so I was able to keep it upright around the corners.”
It was only the second win of Thompson’s career.
“I got to run a lap or two with the lead female Chelsea [Sodaro],” he said. “A year ago I never would have thought I’d be running with the world champion so that’s pretty cool.”
Sodaro won the women’s race in 4h18m59s.
“It’s a super positive start to my season this year, I’ve loved being in this hemisphere, being out of the snow in Nevada, where I live,” she said.
“Last year was tough for me, a lot of ups and downs and I lost some of the joy in my racing so it’s exciting to be finding that again.”
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