Tauranga Half produced two outstanding elite races, with Braden Currie taking out the men's title in race record time, while Rebecca Clarke beat the best in NZ long distance multisport to defend her women's title in this iconic multisport event.

The 34th running of the Tauranga Half drew outstanding elite fields, competing in near perfect conditions at Mount Maunganui. The event also doubled as the NZ Middle Distance Triathlon Champs, giving the wins by Braden and Rebecca special significance.

In the men's field, Braden led from start to finish, smashing the elite field, and the race record, in a time of 3:37:47. He had an outstanding swim, opening up a lead on Sam Osborne and Mike Phillips out of the water at Pilot Bay.

Former event winner Mike Phillips then recorded the fastest time on the 90km bike leg, and was just behind Currie as they headed out onto on the 21.1k run leg

Braden Currie produced the best run of the day, completing the 21.1k course which runs around Mt Maunganui's base track twice, in a time of 1:13:40, to take the title from Mike Phillips by a three minute margin. Jack Moody finished third, two minutes further back.

Braden Currie wins Tauranga Half on Saturday January 21. Photo: Supplied by Hamish Collie / Mount Festival of Multisport.

This is Braden's fourth win in the Tauranga Half following victories in 2016, 2017 & 2022. Only NZ multisport legend Cameron Brown has more titles in this iconic event.

'I felt good all day. I wanted to swim hard and make it a solo race," says Braden. " I put the hammers down and was able to open up a buffer on the swim. Mike Phillips was my heels towards the end of the swim and not far behind heading into the bike leg.

"I wanted to stay in control on the bike leg, and maintain a good distance on strong runners such as Jack Moody. I had a great run and was able to build into it, and not push too hard.”

Braden Currie's race record time on Saturday was almost two minutes faster than the previous one set by Kyle Smith in 2021.

'I was a few seconds outside the record last year, so it was nice to beat it this year. Hopefully, this one sticks for a while," says Braden.

Saturday's performance sets up Braden Currie, the 2 x NZ Ironman Champ, and 4 x Coast to Coast winner, for a big year ahead as he builds towards the IRONMAN World Championship, which has moved its men's event from Kona, Haiwaii to Nice, France in September this year.

The Tauranga Half elite women's race proved to the one of the best races seen on the Mount Maunganui course in years with a star-studded field which included defending champ Rebecca Clarke and two time winners – Amelia Watkinson and Hannah Berry (nee Wells). Watkinson won the event in 2016 & 2017 and has spent the past 5 years based on Australia's Sunshine Coast, racking up a huge number of wins on the international triathlon circuit. She made a special trip back to NZ to compete in today's big event. Hannah Berry won the event in 2019 & 2020 and being based in Mount Maunganui, was the local favourite.

The race lead changed on few occasions between these three top multisport athletes, as they fought for bragging rights and the national title.

Amelia Watkinson, Rebecca Clarke and Hannah Berry. Photo: Supplied by Hamish Collie / Mount Festival of Multisport.

An outstanding swimmer, Clarke swam the 2k swim leg at Pilot Bay in 24:35 to open up a small led over Berry, with Watkinson almost two minutes behind when they came out of the water. Amelia Watkinson then stormed back on the bike to lead the women's field when they headed out onto the run.

Heading into the base track of Mount Maunganui on the first lap of the 21.1k run, Clarke was in the third position behind Watkinson and Berry. It was here where she made a decisive move, surging past her competitors to take a 10 second lead over Watkinson into the second lap of the run leg, with a further 20 seconds back to Hannah Berry.

Rebecca Clarke continued to attack on the remainder of the run, recording the quickest run leg of the day in 1:26:09 to finish two and half minutes ahead of Amelia Watkinson, with Hannah Berry having to settle for third this year.

Clarke rated today's victory as 'her best ever performance in New Zealand.” While she won the title last year, the field didn't include Watkinson and Berry, making today's win against the best in the country extra special.

She credits recent training in Wanaka for her outstanding run performance on Saturday.

'I have been based in Wanaka lately so have been running a lot in the local trails, which helped me round the undulating base track today, and my overall strength on the run," says Rebecca.

Another big change for Clarke over the past year is that she has dedicated herself to the sport of long distance triathlon, spending four months of 2022 abroad, competing against some of the biggest names in the sport.

Clarke will take the confidence garnered from Saturday's victory through to the NZ Ironman Championship in Taupo on the March 4. From there it is back overseas, with victory in the Tauranga Half a great kick start to her 2023 international campaign.

The Tauranga Half was the headline event for the Fulton Hogan Mount Festival of Multisport which also featured the Pilot Bay Swim over 800m, 2km and 3.7k distances, an Aquabike event which is a swim followed by a bike leg, and the Pressio Mount Run which was held over 5km, 10km and half marathon distances.

The Pilot Bay Swim 2km events were taken out by Tokyo Triathlon Olympians Tayler Reid and Nicole van der Kaay, while highly accomplished local runner Julian Oakley won the Pressio Half Marathon in a race record time of 1:07:27, and Amelia Lythe won the women's half marathon in 1:23:08. Another decorated athlete who took part in the half marathon today was 86-year-old multisport legend Garth Barfoot.

Results for all events are below.

Website: www.mountfestival.kiwi

Tauranga Half Results – Saturday, 21 January 2023
Distance 2km Swim 90km Bike 21km Run
Elite Men's
1. Braden Currie (Wanaka) 3:37:37
2. Mike Phillips (Christchurch) 3:40:37
3. Jack Moody (Auckland) 3:42:25
4. Sam Osborne (Rotorua) 3:46:39
5. Simon Cochrane (Auckland) 3:48:34
Elite Women's
1. Rebecca Clarke (Auckland) 4:07:48
2. Amelia Watkinson (Sunshine Coast) 4:10:12
3. Hannah Berry (Tauranga) 4:10:45
4. Samantha Kingsford 4:26:08
5. Fiona Gallagher 4:31:31

Aquabike Results
Distance 2km Swim 90km Bike
Overall Men's
1. Michael Glynn 2:39:32
2. Stephen Sheldrake 2:39:35
3. Mike Crowe 2:39:45
Overall Women's
1. Kate Brown 2:54:45
2. Danielle Trewoon 2:58:16
3. Jenna Barrett 3:04:07

Pressio Mount Run – Results
Overall Men's – 5km
1. Ben Morris 18:12
2. Seth Herbert 18:49
3. Tarn Currie 19:30
Overall Women's – 5km
1. Alaina Smith 23:19
2. Sienna Rowe 23:26
3. Pamela Shea 24:50
Overall Men's – 10km
1. Jake Wilkinson 37:39
2. Denny Adamson-Barkla 37:53
3. Matthew Brunt 39:17
Overall Women's – 10km
1. Esther George 39:05
2. Kerry White 39:39
3. Sarah Gardiner 41:25
Overall Men's – 21.1km Half Marathon
1. Julian Oakley 1:07:27
2. William Leong 1:15:52
3. Ben Evans 1:18:08
Overall Women's – 21.1km Half Marathon
1. Amelia Lythe 1:23:08
2. Emily Burmester 1:34:41
3. Jasmine Finney 1:43:07

Pilot Bay Swim – Results
Overall Men's – 800m
1. Kiani Woodward 13:02
2. Wareen Dohnt 16:15
3. Luca Dohnt 17:29
Overall Women's – 800m
1. Maia Kervin 12:26
2. Poppy Richardson 14:04
3. Nikita Coleman 14:08
Overall Men's – 2k
1. Tayler Reid 25:33
2. Nathan Sykes 39:53
3. Edward Richards 40:01
Overall Women's – 2k
1. Nicole van der Kaay 26:54
2. Paige Rameka 32:43
3. Jacinda Baker-Singh 33:13
Overall Men's – 3.7k
1. Andrew Hughes 46:39
2. Oliver Larcombe 48:28
3. Samuel Riddell 48:31
Overall Women's – 3.7k
1. Eva Goodisson 48:36
2. Kylene Schlebusch 1;05:21
3. Bronwyn Wylie 1:07:33