Like the women's field there is some solid talent there.
In terms of who to watch, well, take your pick, there is a whole bunch of speed in those top 7 names alone. Terenzo has had a quiet year, but he is the current record holder and he has just won the 70.3 Western Sydney, so he is obviously back and firing. Luke is the previous record holder who has a second at Ironman Australia to his name this year (amongst other results). Cameron Wurf just smashed the Kona bike record on his way to 9th and is improving on the run, so his pedigree doesn't really need explaining. James Cunnama is no stranger to racing success nor is David Dellow who has numerous Ironman podiums (including this race) although has been a little quiet of late. And that is not even half the field.
If I was forced to make a call I would say my pick is between Terenzo and Wurf. Terenzo is just so damn talented, when he is on fire he makes everything look too easy. If he is in form I think he will be hard to stop. Wurf is an athlete on the rise, no doubt, my biggest question over Wurf will be the amount of racing in his legs for the year. This race will be the end of a long year for him, that doesn't mean he won't fire here, but it does raise the question. McKenzie will feature, but I see him more challenging for the podium rather than the win. Really though, those places from 3rd to 5th could go a lot of different ways depending on how the day pans out.
Where I am most excited about the men's field is the local contingent. Unlike the women's field, that really only has one or two locals racing, the men's field is chock a block with Western Australian's, either native or adopted.
We have Matt Burton, Allister Caird, Simon Billeau (adopted from France), Guy Crawford (adopted from NZ), Nathan Groch (living over East now) and Blake Kappler. That is a pretty solid contingent.
Given that they are the locals, I am keen to see them all do well, but my pick for a potential upset would be Matt Burton. 2018 has been a renaissance year for Matt. After years of racing, some good results and some frustrating injuries Matt gave himself a massive break a little while ago to get his body sorted. During that time we saw Matt appear in a bunch of local events, he swam the Rottnest Channel (19km) addressing his weakest leg, the swim. He trained up for and ran a 2:30(ish) marathon, vastly improving his run. Now that he has come back to triathlon, what we are seeing now is an athlete who has gone from being a weapon on the bike and weaker in the other legs to one who is a well rounded triathlete (and still a weapon on the bike). Subsequently the result have been coming, including a 3rd at 70.3 Bintan and a win at Challenge Iskadar Puteri this season. Matt has achieved at 8:20(ish) on this course before and so if he is anywhere near that form he is in for a good day. If he is in even better form (which I suspect he might be) then he would be my sneaky bet for a good performance.
Another athlete who I am also very keen to see is Allister Caird, who is a very talented athlete who has been very unlucky with this race lately. A crash in 2015 put him out during the run, in 2016 he suffered a concussion two weeks before the race forcing him to withdraw on the bike and last year he suffered a horrific crash which did a lot of damage to him. Following that monster crash Allister had a quiet start to 2018 but then in the 2nd half of the year he achieved a 7th place at the very tough Zofingen Powerman World Championships, so safe to say he has been returning to form. This is a guy who has the ability to race this course very quickly with a super bike/run combo. but for the last few years we haven't had the chance to see him do achieve his potential at Busso. It is great to see him return to the Pro Ironman circuit and if he is on song Allister is certainly a top 10 contender (or higher) and so I will watching him with keen interest.
Simon Billeau is a talented Frenchman who has been living in Perth for the last few years. The last couple of years have been pretty frustrating for Simon as injury has hampered him racing at his full potential. However, in 2018 Simon feels that he finally has that injury sorted and has been able to train at full pace and as a result he says he is in the best form he has been for years. Simon's goal in life is to break 8 hours and if he truly is in that form then it will place him right at the pointy end of the field. Even if he isn't quite in that form yet, he has been racing very well locally, coming in just behind Allister and Matt at a recent long course event, so we could see him feature in the top half at Busso if he has a good day.
Guy Crawford is always a crowd favourite. This race will be his return to Perth from a Summer spent in the US. From what I have seen Guy is travelling pretty well, but isn't quite in career best form, although I might have that wrong. He always swims and bikes well, and so his day may well depend on how his running is going. Given his current form I would expect a nice solid performance from Guy, which is likely to see him somewhere in the top to middle of the field. As always though, it will be fun to watch him race.
That leaves Nathan and Blake. I don't know Nathan personally, but from what I have heard he is a really nice guy and a very hard worker. He has several sub 9 results to his name on this course and in 2018 he seems to have taken his racing up a notch, bagging a 4th at the super tough Subic Bay Ironman. Given his recent jump in form Nathan may be a bit of a dark horse in this event, potentially mixing the results up a bit. I don't have a feel for how he is currently travelling, so am not sure where he is likely to roll in, but watch this space. He has gone 8:50ish before and I suspect he is looking for a quicker result this weekend, which would place him at the pointy end of the second half.
Blake is similar to Nathan, a nice guy who works hard. He has just come off a 7th place at Xiamen 70.3, about 5 minutes behind Guy and sub 4:00 hours (I think for the first time), so he is travelling pretty well. Like Nathan, Blake has achieved several sub 9 results at Busso and I am sure will be looking to go well under 9 this weekend, which he looks to have the form to achieve. If he can bring his PB down significantly into the 8:40s or even the 8:30s then we could be looking at a result getting close to the top 10, which would be pretty awesome.
As we all know, Ironman is a fickle beast and so who knows how the weekend will pan out, there are just so many variables. But one thing is for sure, it should be a great weekend of racing in both the men's and women's field and I am certainly looking forward to watching it all unfold.
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