TRIATHLON - Sprint to finish and gold for Warriner

Sam Warriner likes the way her Olympic year has taken a sudden turn for the better.
Winning her sixth ITU World Cup race at the weekend, the Tongyeong round of the international circuit in Korea, makes Warriner the most successful New Zealand triathlete on the circuit. Not even Olympic gold medallist Hamish Carter has been as successful on the world cup scene.
But more importantly, Saturday's race helped Warriner wipe away lingering frustrations from an average performance at the World Cup race in New Plymouth and set her up for the next phase of her Olympic campaign.
Warriner won despite starting the race with only two weeks of speed work under her belt - she has been following an Arthur Lydiard style programme since January and clocking up huge running miles instead.
But when she decided to hit the speed button in Korea, she suddenly had a taste of Olympic metal between her teeth.
"I felt so good in the last stages of the run and when I decided to go it just happened so quickly," Warriner said.
"I was pushed all the way by [Brit Hollie Avil and Vendula Frintova from the Czech Republic] and that was really good practice because you need to be able to control yourself in that sort of state."
But for Warriner the result came as a mini breakthrough as she was able to keep a lid on her competitive nature on the pivotal cycle leg where winds buffeted the field and slowed the pace of the race down.
"In New Plymouth I made the mistake of getting too excited about being in the front bunch and needing to push the pace.
"This time I backed my run and waited in the pack, hiding in the pack really, and took my time to make my move so it was the best move I could make in the run leg."
Since finishing her base phase training, Warriner has shaved off times for her running in testing and built an impressive open water swimming base.
She can now run at 3min/km pace, which is 15 seconds quicker per kilometre than the same time last year. Considering she was one of only two women on the world circuit to break the magical 35 minute mark for the 10km run leg last year, this is quite a step up in achievable speed.
Her win on Saturday though was not one she was celebrating too loudly. She was the highest ranked competitor in the field by some margin, the only top 10 competitor in the line-up, and would have been disappointed with anything but a podium finish.
But the win took some doing.
Emerging with a bunch of six at the front end of the opening swim leg, Warriner was swallowed up in a big lead bunch on the cycle. She lead out a group of four to break clear on the run leg, then left Avil and Frintova behind in the last 500 metres.
"I just kept mentally strong. When I think about this race and how I felt it is exactly where I want to be. It has really kicked my confidence up to come back and win after New Plymouth."
Warriner now heads to Penticton, Canada where she will hook up with training partner Lee Greer, a Whangarei age group triathlete, for some serious speed work training sessions.
She is then expected to line-up at the Triathlon World Championships race in Vancouver in July before linking up with the New Zealand Olympic triathlon team for the final countdown to the Beijing Olympics.