AKAITAIA teenager is hard in training as she prepares to take on three major endurance events back-to-back across the North Island over the coming three weeks.
First up on the dance card for 13-year-old Nalani Karena Waenga is the Tri Maori triathlon in Cambridge today - an Olympic-distance event comprising of a 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km run.
Next Saturday will see her riding the notoriously gruelling 160km Taupo Cycling Classic, part of a an estimated half-dozen or so representing the Far North Flash cycling club at that event, before then heading east to compete in the Rangitahi division of the Iron Maori triathlon in Napier on December 5.
A busy girl then. A Year 8 pupil at Kaitaia Intermediate School, Nalani has been training hard for the upcoming events, which includes five swimming sessions, three runs, and four extended cycling sessions a week.
Her swim training is done with Jim Larkin, her swimming coach for the past six years, while her running and cycling training programme has been run under the guidance of Far North Flash founder Philip Gibbs.