A one, two podium placement for Rolf Prima at Challenge Wanaka
Defending her crown, Gina Crawford grabbed her third consecutive victory at Challenge Wanaka this past Saturday in New Zealand. Competing in the men's field, Justin Daerr brought home an impressive second place finish with the fastest run of the day.
Setting the pace early, Crawford was not only the first out of the water, but emerged with over a three and half minute gap on her main challenger, Rebekah Keat of Australia. With a quick transition to the bike on her Rolf Prima TdF58's, Crawford increased her lead to over five-minutes on Keat, taking the fastest bike split in the women's field. Crawford held strong in the run, but with stomach cramps causing her to slow down, Keat began to eat into Crawford's lead. Pushing through, Crawford held her position and won with an impressive time of 9:28:57.
With a strong swim, Justin Daerr entered the first transition six-minutes behind the leader. Working to make up needed time; Daerr quickly found his rhythm on the bike and began ticking off the miles. Entering the run with strong legs, Daerr still was over four-minutes behind the leader. Digging deep, Daerr pushed hard and began to claw his way into contention. Finishing with the fastest run of the day, Daerr took a second place finish and helped place two Rolf Prima athletes on the podium.