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Australian triathletes Sarah Crowley and Max Neumann are repeat winners at the Ironman Asia Pacific championships in Cairns.

Sarah Crowley's Hawaiian Ironman triathlon campaign continues to gather momentum with a second Asia Pacific title in Cairns.

Fellow Australian Max Neumann also won the Cairns Ironman for the third-straight year on Sunday, duelling with New Zealander Braden Currie all day before passing him for good in the run.

Crowley looms as Australia's top hope at the Hawaiian Ironman world championships in October after two third-place finishes there, most recently in 2019.

Hawaii will return in October after a succession of COVID-19 cancellations.

Crowley won in Cairns only seven weeks after claiming the Ironman Australia title at Port Macquarie over the same distances - a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km marathon run.

She also won the Cairns race five years ago.

"I had to hang in there and my legs are pretty sore from Port Mac a few weeks ago but I did the job." Crowley said.

"That hurt a lot more than the last one.

"Usually, I actually go a bit better on the second one, so we just went after another one. It's a good opportunity in Australia at the moment, there's so much racing and it's good to see good competition."

She paid tribute to second-placed Radka Kahlefeldt, while last year's winner Kylie Simpson charged through the field to claim third.

"I was pretty impressed with Radka today, she hung in there for a lot of it. I was really putting it down on the bike and I couldn't shake her so an amazing first-time effort," Crowley said.

She led the field out of the water and built on her advantage to win in eight hours 59 minutes 40 seconds, with Kahlefeldt next in 9:05:16 and Simpson's 9:19:21 rounding out the podium.

Currie claimed the men's title in 7:52:53 and Currie (7:55:10) also went under eight hours for second place.

Australian Sam Appleton claimed third in 8:05:33.