TRIATHLON - Countdown starts for Beijing - Warriner to test herself at Ruakaka

SAM WARRINER will use the new Whangarei Triathlon at Ruakaka on Sunday to launch her Beijing Olympic triathlon campaign.
Warriner confirmed her place in the field for the Whangarei Triathlon in what will be her first step back into the competition arena since racing on the ITU world cup circuit in Israel in December.
Since then, Warriner has made some big changes, including shifting temporarily to Auckland, and is now about to march into an all-or-nothing countdown to the Beijing Olympics in August.
There are now 170 days to go until the opening ceremony and 179 days until race day at the Ming Tomb Reservoir north of Beijing, with many training miles to be added in that time.
But when it came to deciding where best to launch her Olympic dream, Warriner was quick to head back north to race alongside friends and in front of people in Whangarei that have become her Kiwi family.
"Living in Auckland is a temporary thing, something I am doing to train with the [New Zealand elite] triathlon squad but Northland is where I still call home," Warriner said.
"It will be good to get out there racing again but I am not too sure what to expect because I am in the middle of a tough base phase of my training and nowhere near racing speed," she said.
"It will be a very interesting feeling getting out there again."
In the corresponding event last year, Warriner arrived back in Whangarei to race while on a ``rest' break from a hectic competition schedule on the international circuit and was going so quick that she blew the entire field away, humbling the male competitors in the process.
She suspects there might be some determined male rivals lining up on Sunday but is quietly plotting another assault on their egos at Ruakaka.
"I have to be a bit careful anyway because I haven't raced since December and am in the middle of a training week with 150km of running included, so my legs will be hammered by the time I get to the start line."
"But I will give it a good go. Lee Greer will be leading out of the swim and is cycling very well - and running well as well for that matter - so I will be chasing him all day."
"We will see how it goes."
The course at Ruakaka is being touted as a possible venue to be added to the Contact Energy My Sport national triathlon series and involves a swim leg in the canals at Marsden Cove, a cycle leg around the roads at One Tree Point near Marsden Point and a run leg through the new subdivision there.
Whangarei triathlete Katherine Anton is expected to compete despite being listed to race in Napier on Saturday in round five of the My Sport national series. Plans to get Nicki Samuels, the former Whangarei Girls' High School student who is hoping to qualify for the Beijing Olympics herself, were stymied when Samuels confirmed her place in the field at Napier as well.
Greer is the leading men's competitor. He is the only male expected to threaten Warriner.