Ironman: Stormy weather on Lake Taupo threat to swim leg

Ironman favourites Jo Lawn and Cameron Brown went to bed last night hoping to wake up to favourable weather and lake conditions.

With 40-knot southwesterly winds chopping up Lake Taupo yesterday, organisers were making plans to cancel the 3.8km swim leg, reducing today's race to just the 180km cycle and 42.2km run legs.

That prospect found little favour with the race favourites and top seeds.

"I see myself as a strong swimmer and know that in normal circumstances I could build a seven or eight minute buffer out of the water," said Lawn. "It would be much closer without that."

Brown too prefers to "go the distance" and would be unhappy if the race was shortened.

Even if organisers, scheduled to check conditions at first light - 15 minutes before the 7am start - give the all clear, it promises to be a tough day for the record 1400-plus strong field.

The winds, even if they abate to around 20km, will prove difficult with competitors, who will then have to decide whether to ditch their favoured disc wheels for the cycle leg.

Lawn and Brown, chasing their fourth "Kiwi double" saw their odds further shortened yesterday when second seeds - Australian Kate Major and Ukraine's Victor Zyemtsev - were late scratchings.

Major was forced out with a viral infection apparently made worse by her asthma and has returned home.

Zyemtsev had an MRI scan on his injured knee in Rotorua yesterday - the result of an accident while on a training ride with a group including Brown a few weeks ago - and returned to Taupo with the news the cartilage damage would sideline him.

Since switching to Taupo from Auckland in 1999, the race has been blessed with almost perfect conditions. Today's race may turn into a different test.