Multisports: Brown, Lawn plot different paths to Hawaii

Cameron Brown emerges from the water. Photo / Laurene Boyd.

For Cameron Brown it's all about redemption while Joanna Lawn is taking a different tack as the Ironman New Zealand champions turn their attention to Hawaii in October.

After continuing their domination of the national championships in Taupo on Saturday, it wasn't hard for the Auckland pair to shrug aside fatigue and consider how they will attack the world championships.

Brown didn't finish on the unforgiving Hawaiian island of Kona last year while Lawn produced her second fourth placing to add to a multitude of top-10 finishes.

A DNF (did not finish) next to his name, courtesy of a virus, was a first for Brown in his 25-Ironman career and it still stings.

"I'd like to go back to Hawaii and try and redeem myself," said Brown, who has been runner-up twice in Hawaii.

The 35-year-old couldn't guarantee that his dominating win at Taupo would translate into a long-awaited breakthrough in the biggest race of them all.

"Let's hope so but anything can happen in this sport. I'll try and replicate what I've done in this buildup, it's gone very very well.

"The emphasis is to stay injury-free."

Brown, who will take a two-week break with his family in Australia, plans to conduct most of his Hawaii buildup at the Triathlon New Zealand base in southern France, either side of competing at Ironman Germany in July.

He missed defending his title in Frankfurt last year because of a heel injury, typical of a 2007 ruined by niggles and illness.

Having completely shaken off the injury only recently, Brown was raring to give everything to this year and hoped to train aggressively in France with compatriot Kieran Doe, who was third on Saturday.

Doe, dominated his specialist 3.8km swim and 180km cycle legs before being passed in the 42.2km run by Brown and Belgian Frederik Van Lierde.

Lawn's win was all about courage and increased self-belief on the run leg as she pulled away from Western Australian Kate Bevilaqua 6km from the end.

Having dominated the race, Lawn was hauled in by the run specialist with 14km remaining and admitted she may have previously crumbled in the same scenario.

A summer concentrating on run training paid dividends and she hoped the same would happen at Kona.

Lawn was leaning towards a series of shorter races as her best lead-in to the world championships instead of her usual schedule of three Ironman races per year.

"Maybe I want to have a change and not do another one," she said.

"I enjoy doing short races. I've done a lot of endurance stuff and I think speed is probably what I'm lacking.

"It's not so stressful too. This (Ironman) is fun, but it's pressure."

Asked if she considered herself a "great athlete" after achieving a world first for a woman by winning one race six times in row, Lawn said only victory in Hawaii could grant her that status.

Brown's win was his seventh, the most by anybody in one event, moving him ahead of Lawn and three of Ironman's greatest names - American men Mark Allen and Dave Scott and Zimbabwean Paula Newby-Fraser.

- NZPA