TRIATHLON - Warriner hopes to improve ranking

They might be fellow Northlanders, but Nicky Samuels and Sam Warriner will line up at the Lorient ITU World Cup triathlon race in France this weekend with vastly different agendas.
Samuels is coming back from injury, hoping for a springboard result that will help her rediscover race form before the European triathlon season finishes and she heads back to New Zealand.
Warriner is hoping for a top-10 result so she can move from third to second in the world rankings, and earn US$30,000 ($44,000) at the same time.
It might be their rival New Zealand elite team members who will emerge to challenge their hopes, with Olympians Debbie Tanner and Andrea Hewitt included in the field.
But, for Warriner, the chance to boost her world ranking has been the tonic to help restore her training mojo post her disheartening 16th placing at the Beijing Olympics.
Top 10 finishes at Lorient this weekend and in the final ITU World Cup race in Mexico next month will see her move past Britain's Helen Tucker.
Triathlon New Zealand high-performance manager Stephen Farrell said even the top three ranking spot had been a significant achievement from Warriner in an Olympic year. Instead of banking as many points as possible by filling her calendar with ITU world cup races, Warriner had only fronted in four events this season to stay fresh for Beijing.
Farrell said: ``That means she has to make the most of these last two races and cannot afford to have a bad race at all to have a chance of getting the No2 spot. But her consistency of result in the four races she has completed so far, underline her ability.
"It is a high-class field [this weekend] though and will be a tough test."
Now based with family in Surrey, England, Warriner has been careful not to add any extra pressure to her preparations, but she has been eyeing the world No2 spot since last season.
She said: "I have been in the UK training hard and spending time with family which I have really enjoyed.
"I am looking forward to racing in the Lorient World Cup as I am back to what I love, racing and training hard.
"My only goals for this weekend are to go out hard as I always do and have fun. If I can get some good points to improve my world ranking then that's a bonus.
"But I just want to enjoy the event and push myself as hard as I can."