KEY POINTS:
Inaugural winners Scott Ballance and Karyn Williams will turn back the clock when they start in the 20th anniversary Port of Tauranga half-ironman triathlon on Saturday.
The pair are among 14 previous winners lining up for the country's longest running half ironman, which doubles as the official Triathlon New Zealand long-distance championships.
The Port of Tauranga half ironman has grown into the most popular triathlon in the country, with this year's 1200-strong field filling in four hours.
Ballance will be taking part in his first event since he suffered a massive coronary attack. He won the race twice - in its first year in 1990 and in 1995 - and was never out of the top three in his heyday.
He was the first New Zealand male to win Ironman New Zealand and was the best Kiwi at the Ironman world championships in Hawaii until Cameron Brown came on the scene.
The Christchurch athlete suffers from arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia - a build up of fatty growths on the right ventricle of the heart - which can lead to a super-fast heart beat, low blood pressure and cause cardiac failure.
"I had been suffering problems for a couple of years but you put it down to all sorts of things," Ballance said.
"There was a problem in a race in Christchurch when I had to stop and walk. I thought I should just tough it out and harden up. But now I realise that I was having an attack.
"I knew I was in trouble when I had completed a long training run a couple of weeks later.
"I couldn't find a pulse but I put my heart rate monitor on and it raced up to 240. I just lay there for a couple of hours until my wife came home and friends helped take me to hospital.
"They could not believe that I had not died. It may have been my fitness that helped or it was just plain luck."
He has been able to do some gentle but regular physical activity and understands he cannot push things which may trigger an attack.
The 20th running of the event was the lure for Ballance to step up his training to a stage where he can complete the 2km swim, 90km bike and 21km run - although he aims to complete rather than compete and will need to walk part of the run.
"I thought it would be fun to be part of it, way back in the field. But it will be quite emotional I guess."
Longtime rival and friend Tony O'Hagan of Auckland, a three-time winner, will take part, with 1996 champion and fellow Aucklander Walter Thorburn, eight-time winner Brown and defending champion Kieran Doe.
Hamilton's Dave Brading who won in 1991, 1993 champ Frank Clarke (Auckland) and record holder Nathan Richmond (Auckland) will compete in teams.
Inaugural women's winner Williams will also return, with two-time champion Sue Clark to join 2005 winner Samantha Warriner and two-time champion Jo Lawn competing as individuals while Karyn Ballance (Christchurch) and Heidi Alexander (Pukekohe) will take part in teams.
- NZPA
