TRIATHLON - Time for a break as stunning season ends

The bid for a higher world ranking proved a bridge too far, but two mediocre results that have bookended a stunning world cup season might yet provide invaluable information for Whangarei triathlete Sam Warriner.
Warriner finished her world cup season with a 13th placing at Eilat, Israel on Saturday night, a result that denied her enough points to leapfrog Australian Emma Moffatt into the world No.2 ranking spot.
But her coach Murray Healey is not about to push the panic button. The world No.2 spot would have been nice, he said, but the race in Eilat and the other in Cancun, Mexico three weeks ago have not just been about finish line results.
It turns out that Warriner has been using the events to fine tune some specifics, in particular her swimming technique in open water and her power in the latter stages of the cycle leg.
"Sam was flat and tired (in Eilat). All good for giving it a go, but we knew it was a risk because you just can't hold on for that long competing at this level. We knew it was touch and go to do these races anyway. Put it this way, I knew she would not podium, but we thought we might just sneak in that No.2 spot," he said.
Warriner is now set to take all of December off, a well-earned break from a taxing regime that has seen her operating, for the most part, at full noise since she won the New Zealand national title in March.
But even the timing of the break has been carefully measured. It is all fastidiously designed with the Beijing Olympics in August next year in mind.
"What we have found out during the year is that Sam races so well off long, hard stuff in training. When she won in Vancouver she came off some long, hard training. When she moved to shorter more intense sessions she started slowing down a bit," Healey said.
So even now Healey is designing a programme that will encompass more controlled open water swims, power sets on the bike and some gruelling strength work to maintain her running form.
All of it is with the course profile and timing of the Olympic race in Beijing in mind.
In Eilat on Saturday, Warriner took a slightly different tactical approach to the opening swim leg and emerged from the water in good shape.
Warriner rode comfortably in the lead pack of 20 athletes but could not maintain that rhythm on the 10km run, finishing 2min:19sec behind first-time winner, Nicola Spirig of Austria.
With wins in Vancouver and Tiszaujvaros, Warriner is the only woman other than World Champion and world No.1 Vanessa Fernandes to claim multiple world cup titles this year.
In the men's race in Eilat, Hirokatsu Tayama made triathlon history by becoming the first Japanese triathlete to ever win world cup race. His previous best in a World Cup was a 7th place finish in his native Japan at the 2006 event in Ishigaki.
The 2008 world cup series kicks off on March 30 in Australia at the beach resort town of Mooloolaba.