New Zealand professional triathletes Braden Currie, Hannah Berry, and Rebecca Clarke are gearing up to take on a star-studded field this weekend for the 2024 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas North American Championship.
Taking place in The Woodlands, Houston, IRONMAN Texas is part of the IRONMAN Pro Series and is the first full-distance race on the series calendar and offers a maximum of 5,000 points to the winner. Every second an athlete finishes behind the race winner equates to a point earned or lost.
Designated as the North American Championship, IRONMAN Texas also offers a USD $175,000 total pro prize purse and six qualifying slots for each gender to the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship – taking place in Nice, France for female athletes and Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i for male athletes in 2024.
Braden Currie will be looking to build on the solid start he made to his United States trip after finishing sixth at Athletic Brewing IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside earlier this month, earning him 2,067 IRONMAN Pro Series points (a maximum of 2,500 points are awarded for an IRONMAN 70.3).
“Things have gone pretty smoothly ahead of Texas,” said Currie. “Good travels over and raced Oceanside, mixed result, but pretty happy with the outcome. It's just good to get a race under the belt over here and still feel good. I've been up in Boulder for two weeks and it’s been going well, training at altitude and the body's feeling good, settled into time zone and America way of living. Now I’m just looking forward to these last few days and getting into the heat and doing some racing.”
At the beginning of the year Currie signalled his intention to go full tilt at the IRONMAN Pro Series. With five IRONMAN and four IRONMAN 70.3 wins and many more podiums achieved from his career to date, Currie knows that if can put together a consistent year of racing he will be in with a shot of the IRONMAN Pro Series crown and the USD $200,000 end of year winner’s bonus.
“The IRONMAN Pro Series offers consistency of racing a quality field, it’s exciting. I think consolidating all the top athletes into main races makes for really competitive racing and consistency in racing,” he said. “I think probably the financial aspect of it is a cool element, that there's actually a really good reward for chasing the series and being consistent in the racing. I like to think that normally I'm a pretty consistent athlete over the years and if I can put together my four or five consistent good races, that should leave me in a pretty good spot overall.”
With this weekend’s IRONMAN Texas being part of the IRONMAN Pro Series, the way Currie approaches the race may alter slightly compared to his usual style of going all out for the win.
“It's always hard because obviously we want a race to win, but I think with the IRONMAN Pro Series there's races that you can probably take more of a risk on but with this one, I don't know the course, I think it's going to be very hot and it's still early-ish in the year so this one is probably the one where I just race it to be consistent, to race strong, and hope for a good result,” said Currie.
“My approach to Texas will probably be different compared to something like IRONMAN Cairns where I know the race and I know the course. Also, if you look at later in the year with the IRONMAN 70.3 World Champs in Taupo or IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia, then you've got a fair idea of where you're sitting and what points you need to chase, so it might make a difference to how I race those last few races too.”
Regardless, Currie will face stiff competition if he is to make the podium and score well, with more than 60 athletes on the men’s start list. Among them, two-time IRONMAN World Champion Patrick Lange (DEU) will be the one to beat, while Matthew Marquardt (USA), Matt Hanson (USA), Joe Skipper (GBR) and Robert Wilkowiecki (POL) are also major threats.
While Currie will line up for his second IRONMAN Pro Series race, on the women’s side Hannah Berry and Rebecca Clarke will make their IRONMAN Pro Series debut.
Berry will be hoping to get her IRONMAN Pro Series campaign off to a flyer. The Tauranga triathlete hasn’t raced over the full-distance since her impressive 11th place finish at the VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in October last year, choosing to skip the 2024 ANZCO Foods IRONMAN New Zealand in March to focus on the IRONMAN Pro Series races.
Fellow Kiwi Rebecca Clarke will line up alongside Berry at IRONMAN Texas, also set to compete in her first full-distance race of the year after being forced to pull out of IRONMAN New Zealand after testing positive for COVID just days before.
There is a lot on the line at IRONMAN Texas. As well as vital IRONMAN Pro Series points, qualification for the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship is also up for grabs.
“My main focus is firstly Nice IRONMAN World Champs qualification,” said Clarke. “I missed out on racing there in 2019 for the IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds and I've really wanted to race there ever since, so securing a slot for Nice is the first goal. There are six spots for pro females so a top six would guarantee a slot.
“Banking good points for the IRONMAN Pro Series is also important, each race really counts with having five races for your total points. The last two years I've raced three IRONMANs a year pretty consistently which will be rewarded in this series if you can race consistently all year and across three IRONMANs. Also, as in all races I want to have a strong performance across swim, bike and run, and know I've given my best effort and overcome any challenges an IRONMAN can throw at you.”
The women’s field for IRONMAN Texas is also stacked, with the 2023 podium of Kat Matthews (GBR), Maja Stage Nielsen (DNK), and Jocelyn Mccauley (USA) all returning to try and emulate their success once again.
“It's a big field with 40 women racing and I would say I've probably raced against about a third of the athletes on the start list,” said Clarke. “I would say about 10 girls have a chance of the podium so it's going to be a very competitive race. There are a couple of very strong swimmers so I expect there will be three or four of us coming out of the water together. The bike course is predominantly flat but could be windy which may break up bike groups. It's hard to predict from there, strong cyclists further back may bridge up and the humid conditions may play a part. I expect athletes like Kat Matthews to be the ones making the moves going into the marathon.
“It is early in the season and with the championship races not until September and December, I wouldn't say I'm in peak performance shape, but I am in good shape. Having COVID seven weeks ago, my coach and I were cautious at first and we wanted to make sure I firstly turned up on the start line healthy,” she said.
“It hasn't been a massive IRONMAN block with the timeframes we were working with, but I have done sessions which make me confident for a good performance. I'm excited to race IRONMAN Texas for the first time, it's a really supportive community here and the spectator atmosphere on the run course will help those tough moments on the marathon.”
The 2024 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas will be broadcast live and free via proseries.ironman.com
For more information on the IRONMAN Pro Series including the fullMemorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas professional start list visit here.