Triathlon: Home triumph 'bonus' for Lloyd

Tinman triathlon Pilot Bay. First Male Andrew Lloyd

Papamoa triathlete Andrew Lloyd opened the summer season with an outstanding victory in the Sovereign Tri Series Tinman raced at Mount Maunganui yesterday.

Lloyd, 24, won in a smart time of 1:48:25 over the standard distance of a 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run ahead of the well-performed duo of James Bowstead (1:48:54) and Kieran McPherson (1:51:04).

He joins an esteemed list of former winners including Hamish Carter, Cameron Brown, Walter Thorburn and Graham O'Grady.

"There was actually quite a lot of internal pressure on myself today being a local event, and I have never performed at local events," Lloyd said. "So today was more a mental game of how to deal with that pressure and I ended up doing that pretty well.

"I literally went out there to have fun. On the start line I was quite content not caring about the result at the end but just wanting to enjoy it, which at the end of the day is why we do it.

"Winning is quite fun though so that was a bonus."

With just seconds splitting Lloyd, Bowstead and eventual fourth-placed Franklin at transition at the start of the run, it was anyone's race. But not for the first time the gruelling section around the base track of Mauao was the deciding factor.

"I didn't feel I had the race probably until that top corner around Mauao," Lloyd said. "I was running right on my limits, running scared. I knew James is an endurance athlete so I figured he would have a real strong second half of the run. That is where it matters around Mauao so I just had to back myself and run my race, which luckily was enough today."

Lloyd spent May to September competing for the ALZ club, based in Sigmaringen, southern Germany, along with fellow Papamoa triathlete Aidan Dunstan, who finished ninth yesterday.

"That was massive being able to miss the New Zealand winter and have a European summer of consistent racing and training," Lloyd said.

"We pushed each other and had fun living the dream and the life over there which we want to pursue as a career. It gives you a taste of what it is like and it is real nice to be able to transfer that into the local scene and support a local event."

Former world champion Sam Warriner was a popular winner of the women's race.

She proved she still has much to offer as a competitor as she won comfortably in a time of 2:02:23 ahead of defending champion Leah Stanley (2:03:30) and Hannah Sturmer (2:08:18).