DUATHLON - Accountant tries adding a world title

By sports editor Tim Eves
A bid for world championship glory is now high on the agenda for Whangarei accountant Katherine Anton after she blitzed the field to win last weekend's Oceania Duathlon title race in Newcastle, Australia.
Anton has been focussing on her duathlon skills ever since scoring a surprise win at the New Zealand Duathlon championships in June. Now she is heading to Italy to compete in the world title race as the reigning Australian, New Zealand and Oceania women's champion.
Now enroute to France where she will spend the next four weeks training at the Triathlon New Zealand base, Anton is now poised for an unexpected tilt at line honours in what her coach Ian Babe thinks will be a hotly contested event on a course that will ensure furious competition.
"Katherine has really upgraded her performances by following a very structured programme, she really has just started to realise just how good she could be," Babe said.
"Considering this was her first exposure to racing internationally it was a very exciting effort. It is going to take some hard work, but I think she could be somewhere near the action [in Italy]," he said.
It has already been quite a year for Anton who started the triathlon season with a series of podium finishes in the national triathlon series. That gained her a start in the ITU world cup race in New Plymouth.
Unfortunately for Anton, her world cup circuit debut ended with a disqualification after she miscalculated the run and finished a lap short.
But she bounced back to win the New Zealand duathlon title and began to plan for a more serious attempt at the duathlon event.
Consisting of a 10km run, 40km cycle and 5km run, the duathlon suits Anton as she is a competitive runner and strong cyclist. In triathlon, her swimming style is not competitive with the elite athletes.
"The bike and the run are her strengths, but the duathlon has happened mainly because of the way things have just happened this winter," Babe said.
To get amid the medals at the world duathlon championships to be held in Rimini, Italy next month, Anton will need to drop her run time for the final 5km leg below the 17 minute mark, almost a minute faster than her current personal best.
But Babe thinks the course in Italy could lend itself to a fast final run split. He also believes Anton is poised to deliver a big performance, especially if the training stint in France goes to plan.
Anton will hook up with fellow Whangarei triathlete Lee Greer, now based in Europe, for some key training sessions before heading to Italy for the big event.
In Newcastle Anton blitzed the women's field, winning the Australian and Oceania title in 2h 11.54m, nine minutes clear of Australian Bev Thomas and 26th overall thanks to a 34m 27s, 10km run split for the first leg.