Multisports: Ussher plots Hawaiian challenge

There was little time to sit and reflect as Richard Ussher and Nicola Leary claimed their first New Zealand Xterra titles at the Blue Lake on Saturday.

In double quick time the pair, and a number of New Zealand's other top multi-sport athletes, will be heading overseas to further pit their skills against the best in the world.

Ussher and his wife Elina (who comfortably won the 21km trail run here) leave tomorrow for China where this weekend they will contest a three-day team event. They can expect between six and seven hours of racing each day. Such a hectic schedule is nothing new for Ussher. He won 14 of the 15 races he started last year. He expects to race about the same number of times this year.

Whether that will include a first shot at the World Xterra Championship in Maui, Hawaii, in October depends on finding the funding.

"I will have to talk to my wife about that," joked Ussher after he had charged home in race record time.

Ussher set himself up for the victory with one of the best swims of his career. Just 1m 07s down on Terenzo Bozzone after the 1km lake swim, Ussher quickly improved from third with the second-best ride on the 26km mountain-bike leg before turning in the day's best run - 42m 11s for the testing 11km, two-lap trail circuit around the lake.

He held off Scott Thorne - fastest by 28secs on the bike - to win by 31secs in a race record 2m 03.33s - comfortably under Bozzone's 2008 record of 2h 07m 09s.

Leary was more than 2min clear of Susie Wood, with fast-finishing Annika Smail a further 24secs back.