Graham O'Grady Claims NZ Title at XTERRA
In his first attempt at Xterra, Graham O’Grady has claimed the title of New Zealand Xterra National Champion.
O’Grady finished second overall to Australia’s Ben Allen, who was not eligible to claim the New Zealand title.
“I’ve never done an Xterra race before so my main goal was to have some fun and not get carted off in an ambulance! To finish second overall to a great athlete like Ben, and take the NZ title home is a pretty nice bonus,” said O’Grady.
Allen recently won the inaugural XTERRA Asian Triple Crown with victories at Guam, the Philippines and Saipan.
“It is a fantastic race and just so much fun. Really I was just lucky the course was pretty forgiving. I had a great swim and led out of the water and managed to hold my lead to the top of the hill, but I think I lost about three minutes to Ben over the decent. He was just really nimble and skillful, where as I managed to fall off going uphill!”
O’Grady finished the 26km mountain bike in fourth position and managed to run his way into second place over the 11km off road run to finish in a time of 2:08:27, just over a minute behind Allen who clocked 2:07:24. Scott Thorne rounded out the podium finishing in 2:09:49.
For O’Grady, the race marks the start of his main race season, which will kick off officially with Ironman 70.3 Busselton on May 5th.
Results
1st Ben Allen (AUS) 2:07:24
2nd Graham O'Grady (NZL) 2:08:27
3rd Scott Thorne (NZL) 2:09:49
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