By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi
Tasmania’s loss is Taupo’s gain as Braden Currie has been forced out of the No.1 bib for Sunday’s Ironman 70.3 Tasmania.
The 36-year-old is a late scratching after his 14-year-old son, Tarn, suffered fractures to both forearms in a “bad fall” mountain biking on Tuesday.
Currie Jnr was training to be a kids mountain assistant instructor at the time, after a 65km shingle track ride in Queenstown the previous day, when he miscalculated a jump and went over the handlebars.
“Combo of fatigue and excitement maybe caused him to not quite hit the jump with his normal sense of equilibrium. Unlucky. Two broken radius [bones] and an immense amount of pain,” Currie wrote on social media.
“But 36hrs later, the bones have been readjusted and he is in a cast. Sleeping, eating and making a plan to manage up to 3 months of being relatively immobile.”
The accident meant Currie quickly transitioned from Tasmania-bound Kiwi No.1 to No.1 Dad and will see the freshly-minted Tauranga Half record-breaker readjust his racing focus to Ironman NZ on March 4. Currie is set to defend his pro title in Taupo in a field including 2014 Ironman world champion Sebastian Kienle, Cantabrian Mike Phillips and Aucklander Jack Moody who finished on the podium steps below the Wanaka Warrior in Tauranga.
“I was due to be on a plane yesterday to Tasmania but I was in the hospital instead. I won’t be racing this Sunday but I’ll have a lot more to give at Ironman NZ instead.”
