Triathlon: Warriner wins in US

Sam Warriner. File photo / BoP Times

New Zealand athlete Sam Warriner today won her third 70.3 half ironman title of the year in Racine, Wisconsin.

Starting on the shore of Lake Michigan, Warriner led the 1.9km swim from start to finish, exiting 15 seconds ahead of Kate Major, of Australia, with Magali Tisseyre, of Canada, in third.

It was Warriner's fifth podium placing in her last five races in the United States.

She then put 30sec on the field within the opening 10km of the bike leg and extended that to 3min heading into the half marathon run.

Although fading a little towards the end, the Northlander held off Major by 10sec as she continued preparations for the world championships in November. "I had a strong first lap and only gave up two seconds, however on the second lap the effects of being ill all this week started to show and I did fade a little toward the finish," Warriner said.

"With a kilometre to go Kate got within 20 metres of me but I surged and put my head down. With 400m to go I was sprinting and just giving it everything to hold off Kate."

Meanwhile, New Zealand athlete Richard Ussher today finished eighth in the Challenge Roth long-course triathlon in Germany.

Ussher posted a time of eight hours 24 minutes 56 seconds for the gruelling event which featured a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42km marathon run.

He was more than 30min behind the winner, Denmark's Rasmus Henning, who crossed the finish line in 7hr 52min 36sec.

Henning, a top Olympic-distance athlete who finished fifth at the ironman world championships last year with a broken hand, confirmed his pre-race favouritism to finish just 2min outside the course record.

Germany's Sebastien Kienle was second and Spain's Eneko Llanos third.

RESULTS - GERMAN TRIATHLON

Rasmus Henning (Denmark) 7hr 52min 36sec, 1st, Sebastian Kienle (Germany) 7:59.06 2nd, Eneko Llanos (Spain) 8:02.33 3rd, Pete Jacobs (Australia) 8:08.56 4th, Michael Goehner (Germany) 8:13.09 5th. Also: RICHARD USSHER (NZ) 8:24.56 8th.

- NZPA