2026 Loan Market Oceanside Tauranga Half – Men’s Race Report
🥇 Jack Moody (3:39:22) 🥈 Ivan Abele (3:40:24) 🥉 Mike Phillips (3:42:17)
Jack Moody has his Tauranga Half title hat-trick. And a new job, his wedding on the way and, it seems, a pleasing new balance in his every day.
Could it be an unlikely secret sauce to take the PTO world No.66 to the next level in this era of uber-focused pros measuring their days in not much more than calories in and km and watts out?
Only time will tell but the 32-year-old Aucklander, in his first start since finishing 38th on debut at the Ironman World Championships in Nice last September, has certainly made an impressive start to 2026.
Moody’s march to a Loan Market Oceanside Tauranga Half three-peat wasn’t without its complications though.
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He gave young gun Ivan Abele a 6min 40sec head start off the bike on Saturday and had to harness all his run prowess to mow down the hard-charging Taupo 22-year-old who would hang on for silver ahead of 2019 winner, Mike Phillips, in third.
For reference, Moody’s 1:11:09 split for the 21.1km half marathon was 7:42 faster than Abele and meant he won with 62 seconds to spare. It had to be swift after Abele reportedly set a new Tauranga bike course record of 1:55:40 – at a thoroughly impressive 46.4km/h pace from the race debutant.
Need more context? T100 comeback campaigner Kyle Smith won the Fulton Hogan Mt Festival of Multisport’s half marathon on roughly the same course in 1.11:27 and he didn’t warm up with a 2km swim and 90km bike ride.
“Pretty incredible to take a three-peat here,” Moody told SBR-Tri.com after catching Abele roughly two kilometres from the finishing tape.
“Had a good enough swim. Missed the pointy end of the pack with the hustle and bustle but still moving forward in the swim.
“Rode well and was super impressed with how strong Ivan [Abele] rode. Plenty of shots fired on the bike and managed to weather the storm well.
“I left myself with more work that I would have liked to catch Ivan. I’d banked on 5 [minutes] and knew 7 was going to be a tough ask. I built into the run though and knew I had the Mount base track card to play which worked a treat.”
Moody built his impressive 2025 around a win in Tauranga and 3rd on debut in his first full Ironman NZ. He’ll be back in Taupo for the start of the new Ironman Pro Series this coming March 7 and before that will return to Challenge Wanaka, a title he won in 2023.
After that, the plan is fluid as he looks forward to his wedding later in March and building on his satisfying new role as a mechanical design engineer at Procreate.
“As for what’s next, I’ll do Wānaka and Ironman NZ. Yeah, I’ll still be aiming for Kona [October’s Ironman Worlds] but not going to go chasing it. If it happens it happens. Still plenty of amazing races to go explore and tick off.
“I’ve got my wedding in March and then the year is a bit open. I’ve got some ideas and I think I’ll lean towards some full distance racing and hopefully squeeze a marathon in there.
“I’ve started working again a lot more in the last few months which I’m actually loving. So I think I’ll be picking and choosing races closer to home this year where it’s only a weekend or a few days away.”
Those competing on home shores in 2026 can’t say they haven’t been warned.
Full 2026 Loan Market Oceanside Tauranga Half results
