A faultless bike-to-run transition helped Sam Warriner win the Australian 70.3 Championships on the Gold Coast at Geelong and qualify her for the World Championships later in the year.
The Whangarei triathlete used her all of her experience over Olympic distance racing to triumph in yesterday's race, turning a deficit into
an advantage in the final transition of the race.
"One girl had a 25-second advantage on me, but after the transition I was back in the lead and then after the first lap I was 40 seconds ahead and went on to win by about a minute," Warriner said after the race.
Warriner was pleased with the win, particularly with her strength on the 21.1km run.
"I felt strong all the way and I finished the run strongly as well, which was an improvement on Tauranga for me."
It is Warriner's second half ironman title of the year after winning the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman in January.
"I am getting used to the distance but it's still tough out there and you never know quite how you're going to feel when you come off the bike. But I achieved my goal today, which was to qualify for the world championships in Florida, so I'm stoked."
After a strong swim, Warriner eventually took the race lead for the first time 5km into the bike leg. She then made a brave decision to go it alone on the bike.
"I rode the first two laps on my own but then I was sort of in no-man's land really after I made the break from the other women, the age-group men brought the chasing women up with them and they caught me on the last lap," she said.
Warriner arrives back from Australia today and continues her base training, working toward the start of the ITU Olympic distance triathlon series in Singapore on May 9-10.
