Triathlon: Lloyd primed to take on Tasmania

Andrew Lloyd is happy with his build-up to compete in a top multisport event in Australia this weekend.

Tauranga triathlete Andrew Lloyd is peaking at just the right time ahead of one of Australasia's feature triathlon events on Saturday.

The 30th Devonport OTU Triathlon Oceania Championships takes place in Tasmania over the standard distance of a 1500m swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run.

The race is one of Australia's oldest triathlons, going back to 1985. It has hosted three Australian Age Group and Elite Championships titles, three Oceania Championships and was a selection race for the 2004 New Zealand Olympic team and for the New Zealand and Australian teams in 2012 before the London games.

Papamoa's Lloyd, 24, has been building nicely for the event since he won the Tinman Triathlon at Mount Maunganui in December. He finished seventh overall and was second Kiwi at the Oceania and NZ Sprint Triathlon Championships at Kinloch, Taupo, on February 1.

Last Friday night in the much shorter super-sprint distance he finished 13th overall in an international-class field at the Takapuna OTU Sprint Triathlon Oceania Cup.

Just 15 seconds separated the runners between fourth and 15th, with Lloyd's impressive bike ride the second fastest of any of the elite athletes. The top 10 featured triathletes from Australia, Japan, Canada and Greece, with seven other nationalities in the field.

"Man, that was tough," was Lloyd's first response after finishing in 27m 42s behind Kiwi Ryan Sissons' winning time of 27m 7s. "That was definitely the strongest field I have raced against this season. I raced a couple of stronger fields in Europe last year, but normally here we don't get such an international field because we are so far away.

"The other tough aspect was the fact the race was so short. You go so fast and are really red-lining the whole way. There is no time to rest and recover. Being such a short race, I did not expect to go that well because my strength is not in that speed side of things. I much prefer more of an endurance race that is about two hours in length."

Lloyd's main goal all season has been to peak for this weekend in Tasmania and two other Australian events to follow. He says he is happy with how well prepared he is.

"Kinloch and Takapuna were just build-up races for that and were both really good indicators of where I was at. I probably am a bit further forward than I thought I would be. I am pretty happy leading in to the month in Australia that I've got coming up."