Ageing Brown has sights on ultimate crown

There will be life in New Zealand Ironman when Cameron Brown decides enough is enough.


The durable Aucklander extended his winning record in Taupo to eight - nine victories worldwide - when winning the 25th New Zealand Ironman on Saturday.


It was a comfortable victory for the 36-year-old who has been the dominant Kiwi in the sport. But it can not go on forever.


He led home a couple of new faces to the sapping 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run finish in Kiwi Terenzo Bozzone and Luxembourg's Dirk Bockel.


Canterbury's little violin-playing triathlete Gina Fergusson got up to beat Jo Lawn and win her first New Zealand race to show the competition is also squeezing up among the women racers.


While Fergusson's effort in recording the second fastest winning time in Taupo was impressive, the men's race was spooky.


Brown's first Ironman in Taupo was in 1999 when he was a promising youngster. He was second to Tim De Boom, a result he repeated the following year while chasing Germany's Thomas Hellreigal to the line.


With his apprenticeship served, Brown then won the next eight Ironman triathlons to become the only man to win the same event that many times. He is a legend of the sport. His efforts have been so predictable in New Zealand but time is catching up with Brown.


He feels he needs to make changes before it's too late if he is to claim the sport's ultimate prize - the World Championship crown at Kona, Hawaii. He's geared back his racing schedule to two Ironman races for this year to concentrate on speed as opposed to banking miles for the most sapping of triathlons.


Brown admits his time is running out despite setting a course record of 8 hours 18 minutes and 5 seconds in Taupo on Saturday.


Getting older and slower is a fact of life but if that appears to be the way Brown is thinking, the performance of first-time Ironman Terenzo Bozzone shows there is a fair dinkum heir apparent positioning himself to strike.


Bozzone had never run a marathon. Until late last year his focus had been on Olympic course triathlons as he chased and then missed a spot in the Beijing team.


He is the World Half Ironman champion and his reaction to Saturday's second in the biggie indicates those shorter races will be behind him - maybe sooner than later.


"Ironman is definitely where it's at in the sport of triathlon ... Kona is where I want to be especially," said Bozzone, who was a spectator in 2001 when Brown won his first title.


Brown has 12 years of elite Ironman racing, training and living banked in his muscular frame.


Bozzone has those young springy fast legs of potential.


During the next few years Brown and Bozzone will pit themselves against one another and they - and the Taupo event - will be better for it.


Elite results Bonita Ironman New Zealand (3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42km run)


Professional male: Cameron Brown, New Zealand, 8.18.05,1 (race record); Terenzo Bozzone, New Zealand, 8.25.37 2; Dirk Bockel, Luxembourg, 8.27.12, 3; Jan Raphael, Germany, 8.32.32, 4; Richard Ussher, New Zealand, 8.35.56, 5

Pro women: Gina Ferguson, New Zealand, 9.18.26, 1; Jo Lawn, New Zealand, 9.23.08, 2; Charlotte Paul, Australia, 9.30.25, 3; Lisbeth Kristensen, Denmark, 9.32.51, 4; Bella Bayliss, UK, 9.41.04, 5.