American Jocelyn McCauley produced a run course record of 2:58:07 to win the 2019 Kellogg's Nutri-Grain IRONMAN New Zealand for the second time. It was her third IRONMAN victory. McCauley joined Meredith Kessler in the lead on the bike at the 70km mark and pushed hard in the second lap to take a six-minute advantage at the start of the run. A former collegiate runner, McCauley made the most of her lead and clocked a 2:48 marathon, paving the way for an 8:53 winning time. She was 12 minutes clear of New Zealand’s Teresa Adam, who was runner-up for a second straight year. Kessler hung in to complete the podium.
McCauley’s run record, which broke the 2004 mark by Jess Drascau-Petersson, was in turn broken by German Kristin Liepold with a 2:55:34 effort for a 7th place finish.
On the men's side, American Andrew Starykowicz smashed the bike record with his 4:12:08 split, some seven minutes inside Joe Skipper’s mark set last year, which gave him a whopping 16-minute buffer on to the run. Braden Currie led the charge to halve that margin at 19kms but as he ran out of fuel, it was fellow kiwi Mike Philipps who emerged through the pack. He was second at 28km, and eventually claimed the lead 2kms from the finish. On a day of records, his 2:40:05 marathon not only sealed his breakthrough IRONMAN win, but also lowered Matt Hanson’s 2:41:19 (set in 2016). Starykowicz held on for second, with Currie completing the podium.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Phillips, Mike NZL 8:05:08
2 Starykowicz, Andrew USA 8:07:32
3 Currie, Braden NZL 8:09:04
4 Burton, Matt AUS 8:12:35
5 Reed, Tim AUS 8:22:12
Top 5 Pro Women
1 McCauley, Jocelyn USA 8:53:10
2 Adam, Teresa NZL 9:05:32
3 Kessler, Meredith USA 9:12:03
4 Siddall, Laura GBR 9:19:37
5 Clarke, Rebecca NZL 9:32:13