Setting aside his recent New Zealand dramas, triathlon star Kristian Blummenfelt has dominated the Ironman 70.3 Geelong race with a course-best record win.
And Great Britain's Kat Matthews continued her strong start to the season on Sunday, holding off a late challenge from Australian Grace Thek to claim the women's title.
Earlier this month, Blummenfelt had mechanical problems on the bike at Ironman New Zealand, while also vomiting during the run.
It was a rare off day for the Norwegian Olympic and Hawaiian Ironman champion, who struggled to sixth.
But 15 days later Blummenfelt returned to his usual form, taking the lead in the first half of the run on Sunday and clearing out for a dominant win.
He took out the 1.9k swim, 90km cycle and 21.1km run half-Ironman distance event in three hours 30 minutes 24 seconds, beating the previous course record by more than three minutes.
Defending champion Jelle Geens from Belgium (3:31:23) and New Zealander Hayden Wilde (3:31:51) also bettered the course record, while Australian Olympian Jake Birtwhistle was fourth.
Blummenfelt sealed the win with a 1:06:39 run leg - also a course record.
"I'm very happy with how I felt on the run. It felt like I was flying there, quite the contrast to how it was two weeks ago in in Taupo," he said.
Matthews won in New Zealand and her efforts there showed late in the run, as Thek threatened to catch her.
But after taking the lead by herself early in the bike, Matthews' 3:39 buffer at the start of the half-marathon proved enough.
She won in 4:06:14, 36 seconds up on Thek, as Canadian Tamara Jewett rounded out the podium in 4:15:26.
"On the run I really struggled. Five to 10k was a bit low, I was thinking, 'Goodness, is this me done?'" Matthews said.
"But then I was able to rally, so I sort of took that confidence in the last couple of k's and I was like, 'Yeah, I can run, it's fine'."
New Zealand and Geelong were the opening rounds of the Experience Oman Iroman pro series.
On Saturday, American Taylor Knibb won the opening round of the T100 Triathlon World Tour on the Gold Coast.
