Warriner fit for world champs after'strange' tactics of new coach

Whangarei triathlete Sam Warriner is feeling fitter and stronger than before heading into the inaugural ITU World Championship Series opener at Tongyeong, South Korea, this weekend.
Since racing at the Beijing Olympics last year, Warriner has been under the direction of two-time world champion and triathlon coach Siri Lindley from the United States, reaping the benefits of specific tri-training.
"I've never had a specific triathlon coach before, and in past years my coaches have been swim coaches for swimming, cycle coaches for cycling and surprisingly enough, run coaches for running," Warriner said from her San Diego base where she has spent the last eight weeks preparing for the season opener.
"She [Lindley] trains me as a triathlete ... she's got some pretty strange ideas but I'm swimming, cycling and running faster than I've ever done before so it's not my place to question her."
The world championship series was established this year to bring the top triathletes around the globe together for seven races at Tongyeong, Madrid, Washington DC, Kitzbuhl (Austria), Hamburg, London - on the 2012 Olympic course - and Yokohama before ending with a grand final on September 9 at the Gold Coast.
The new series supersedes the world cup as the top level of competition, but the world cup remains for second-tier triathletes.
Warriner is one of 10 athletes who make up the "golden team" - which also includes Australia's Emma Snowsill and Emma Moffatt who were first and third respectively at the Olympics, so there will be plenty of competition for the record US$2 million ($3.5 million) up for grabs.
Alongside Warriner, Kiwi girls Debbie Tanner, Nicky Samuels, Andrea Hewitt and Rebecca Spence will be lining up, keeping the Northlander on her toes.
"Everyone will be looking at everyone else, sizing each other up, thinking, 'Jeez she looks slim or she looks fit' - all I know is I've trained harder and smarter than I've ever trained before.
"I just intend to go out, go hard and have fun - anything else is a bonus," said Warriner, who leaves San Diego for South Korea early this week before Saturday's race.
Racing in Tauranga, Australia and California earlier this year, Warriner used the longer-half ironman distance 70.3 triathlon series to prepare for the world championship series.
The day before Warriner raced at California, she was stung in the ankle by a stingray, with the barb missing her tendon by 4mm which affected her performance in the race. She finished seventh, but luckily there have been no lingering side effects from the sting, she said.
Her wins in Tauranga and Australia qualified her to race in the 70.3 World Championships at Florida in November.
Setting the bar high, just where she likes it to sit, she has added victory at the 70.3 championship, as well as in the upcoming series to her goal list for 2009.
Thrown in with the ITU World Championship Series races, she is also part of the Kiwi contingent including Bevan Docherty, Kris Gemmell and Hewitt, which will race at the ITU Teams Championship in Des Moines in June.
And all this before getting married to fiance Stephen Bradley on December 28 at Whangarei. "So it's quite a busy year, really," Warriner said.