Top endurance triathlete Cameron Brown has tipped a blanket finish in the men's race at Saturday's Port of Tauranga half ironman after his abrupt withdrawal yesterday due to a calf injury.
Brown, an eight-times winner at Mount Maunganui and a seven-times winner of Ironman New Zealand, told race officials of
his decision after testing his torn right calf again this week. ``The leg's actually come right in the past 10 days, just unfortunately not in time to race this weekend,' Brown said. ``To say it's pissed me off would be an understatement.'
The 37-year-old tore his calf in his first training run back in early November after the Ironman world championships, where he had a day to forget, finishing 22nd.
``I took some time off then but came back too soon, which made it flare up. I had a scan mid-December which confirmed there was another tear, which meant another 10 days off, and only started back running again on Boxing Day.'
Brown said the injury had healed sufficiently to run 45 minutes a day. ``Unfortunately I've just lost too much training time. I could race but I'd be too scared to tear it again, either on the (undulating) Mount or by having to race at full pace.
``On the amount of training I've done there's not the base to go out and run a half marathon at race pace, especially with Ironman NZ looming in two months. That race is too important to miss.'
Brown will watch Saturday's event from the side of the road, supporting his brother-in-law and a bunch of friends who have entered, but isn't keen to predict a men's winner.
``It's a bit open, isn't it? Duncan (reigning champion Duncan Milne) has got slight knee trouble, but there'll be Kieran (Doe), James (Bowstead) and Jamie (Whyte) in the mix. Tim Berkel will be good but he's coming off Ironman Western Australia not so long ago so I don't know how tired he'll be.'
- NZ HERALD
