Sophie Shallard (Riversdale) recovered from first-day blues and narrowly avoided a multi-bike pile-up 5km from the finish to win the individual women’s two-day title in 12hr 12min 8sec.
Piper Cavanagh (Wānaka) was second, just 13sec behind her, and Arlia Schurr (Dunedin) third in 12hr 32min 20sec.
Shallard, 22, suffered through the first day of competition on Friday with an upset stomach, stormy weather and an 11th-hour course change.
She recharged while preparing for the 67km kayak and 70km cycle to the finish at New Brighton on Saturday.
Cavanagh started day two 2min ahead of Shallard but was hauled in midway through the kayak down the Waimakariri River.
The two remained together for a while until Shallard pulled away when Cavanagh began to have trouble with numbness in her legs.
Shallard held her slim advantage in the cycle leg to break the tape in a very smart time.
Shallard was third in the two-day race last year after having just completed an adventure race, and felt she needed to show the Coast to Coast more respect this year.
"I didn’t have too many expectations, as I got tonsilitis. But I’m really, really happy about the performance I put out there today.
"Not so much yesterday — I kind of mucked up everything. The run was a bit of a shambles. I was vomiting quite a bit."
Shallard said Cavanagh’s performance was "amazing" and she would happily have shared top spot with her mate.
Tom Schenk (Queenstown), third last year, won the individual men’s two-day title in 11hr 7min 6sec.
Sam Peat (Nelson) was second in 11hr 10min 24sec and leading athlete from day one Dougal Shepherd (Nelson) third in 11hr in 55sec.
By Wayne Parsons
