Susan Devoy: Top-class event

While most of us are languishing over our morning coffee and hoping the sun will stay out, hundreds of competitors will be swimming, cycling and running their hearts out in the annual Port of Tauranga Half Ironman today.

I will be strategically placed somewhere along the course watching the guns fight it out for medal honours but equally eager to support the hundreds of others who participate in this fantastic annual event.

Undoubtedly this is New Zealand's most popular half ironman. Testimony to that is that competitor spots sell out in less than an hour.

While the big names come out to play, the bulk of the 1200 entries are amateur triathletes, some attempting triathlons for the first time and others old hands addicted to this event.

There are three guys in the 75-79 age group and one woman in the 65-69 year group plus countless others making up teams and doing their preferred discipline.

Even the couch potatoes can't help but be inspired because we know it requires an extraordinary amount of effort to finish a half ironman.

Cameron Brown will today be gearing up for his ninth half ironman win. Regardless of whether he achieves that, he is in my mind a real Kiwi sporting legend.

Most of the spectators along Marine Parade and Pilot Bay will know who Brown is. After all he is a regular visitor to our part of the world and even stated that "along with Ironman NZ, this is my favourite race. It is where my career started and I love coming back to race here. It's world class, it has a fantastic atmosphere and there's no other race in the country like it."

What a fantastic endorsement of our city and an acknowledgement to the professional organisation of this major event.

For a long time, this was run by local Sport Bay of Plenty chief executive Craig Ross and while Sport Bay of Plenty continue ownership of the event, credit must go to race director Jane Patterson and her team. Patterson's skills have seen her manage the Ironman NZ event in Taupo for many years.

The half ironman is a fantastic event for our city and we should feel privileged that a man who is rated as one of the top 10 most influential male ironman athletes in the world turns up year after year. At 39, Brown's achievements are remarkable and he constantly defies his age.

Sadly, like so many of our fine athletes, he probably doesn't get the recognition he deserves in his own country.

Jo Lawn, the top female contender, is another legend of the sport hoping to win her fourth half ironman to complement her seven Ironman NZ titles. She deserves similar acknowledgement and recognition.

As a nation obsessed with rugby, it can be easy to overlook the achievements of sports people who do not play our national sport or those whose disciplines are not included in the Olympic Games.

Their 40-hour a week training schedule combined with the gruelling nature of the events they compete in would certainly rate them as the fittest athletes in the country.

I ran around the Mount a couple of days ago. The place was humming, tourists were streaming off a cruise ship, hundreds were ambling around the base of Mauao and Pilot Bay was full of visitors enjoying the sun for the first time as workers prepared the course.

Sure, on the way over, the traffic was heavier than usual, I had to search for a park a bit further away than I would have preferred but the Mount was alive.

So what's a little inconvenience for the locals if we get to experience an atmosphere like the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman creates? The weather has been kinder so it should be a great day.