Braden Currie during the 2021 Ironman World Championships in St George, Utah. Photo / Getty
New Zealand's Braden Currie ran an impressive race to finish third at the Ironman World Championship in St. George, USA, the first time a Kiwi has claimed a podium finish since Cameron Brown achieved the feat back in 2005.
Currie was leading the race at the 30km mark of the run before being passed by the Olympic triathlon champion Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt, the eventual winner.
In a nail-biting finish, Currie came so close to claiming silver until the last 800m of the 226km race where he was agonisingly overtaken by Canada's Lionel Sanders.
Currie claimed bronze in a time of 7:54:19. Taupō's Kyle Smith, in only his second ever full distance Ironman and debut World Championship, finished 11th in 8:08:08.
"Awesome day of racing to be honest, we had a really good group in the swim, good group of guys that were all happy to do some work and on the bike I kind of knew actually when we got out of the water it was a good crew of guys that were riding consistently, and all kind of lighter, smaller guys but not absolute animal bikers so it was a kind of perfect combo that we were all riding really well and rolling through it and everyone was happy to do their part.
"I think it showed, we managed to gap a little bit of time on some of the uber bikers and that just gave us that little bit of a buffer coming into the run," said Currie.
"I ran the way I normally run, I tried as hard as I could to give it, I didn't feel amazing but then looking at the times they were still pretty fast times so yeah, stoked, it's amazing, Ironman World Champs third and in the front of the race most of the day and a bit of a sprint finish toward the end," he said.
Currie had set out to improve on his previous best placed Ironman World Championship finish of fifth in 2018 and began the race in the best possible fashion, exiting out of the water from the swim in the lead group, alongside fellow Kiwi Smith.
Out of the first transition into the start of the 180km bike, Currie had clawed his way to the front of the pack with Smith just behind in third.
Both Currie and Smith took turns at the front over the tough, hilly bike course and the Kiwis were once again in the lead group into the second transition.
Smith held the lead over the first 5 km of the run before Currie took over. The 36-year-old steadily began to pull away from Smith and held onto that position until the 30km mark.
Unfortunately for Currie, the fast-finishing Blummenfelt had been reeling in the leaders for the duration of the run and eventually snatched the lead from the fading Currie.
"I ran a really hard and fast first half, I think I got through maybe 1:15/6 through that first half and I guess I just thought if he's going to run that much faster, then my only chance is that he's going to completely detonate so just hold strong, I wasn't going to kick and try and go with him so incredible, amazing performance," said Currie.
Blummenfelt set an Ironman course record on debut, showed his class as he extended his lead from Currie, who had to dig as deep as he's ever gone to try and hold off four-time Ironman champion Sanders, eventually relinquishing the silver with less than a kilometre to go.
"I like to run solid when I'm feeling good to deal with the downside when I'm not, so the way it worked out I don't think it would've made too much difference in the end, maybe if I'd run a little bit more consistent I would've held Lionel off, but you never know, you've got to try and it was a great day of racing," said Currie.
"The way the race was unfolding it's what it came down to and I kind of knew even if I really did have a big blow up I might've still snuck in my Kona slot so that was kind of one box ticked and then next one was to go for the win."
With such a strong men's field, not many tipped Currie for the top three but the Wanaka athlete proved his mettle to score New Zealand a podium finish at the Ironman World Championship for the first time in 17 years.
This is a year like no other for Ironman, with the rescheduled 2021 Ironman World Championship in St. George taking place ahead of the 2022 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawai'i this October.
With his third-place finish, Currie secured himself a position at the 2022 Ironman World Championship in Kona. In finishing 11th, with others ahead of him already qualified, Smith also bagged a place at the pinnacle event.