Multisport: Warriner all heart in breakthrough win

Samantha Warriner celebrates victory yesterday. Photo / Getty Images

From heart doubt to hard out.

Four months ago, Sam Warriner was having heart surgery. The former world No 1 triathlete couldn't exercise for more than 20 minutes. When she did, her heartbeat skyrocketed to a dangerous 230 beats per minute, and the operation was necessary to correct this.

Yesterday - against her husband's wishes - she competed in the Taupo Ironman and won, beating current world champion Mirinda Carfrae and seven-time Taupo winner Jo Lawn in the process.

"I thought something was really wrong," she said of the dark times last year. "I thought my triathlon career was over.

"To come back from that is unreal. I was just happy to be on a start line, so to win is a dream come true. I went for my final check-up just 10 days ago - because I kept putting it off.

"Winning the ITU world championships in Mexico in 2008 was special but this is on top of that because of what I have been through. I'm overwhelmed."

Over almost nine-and-a-half-hours yesterday, Warriner repeated six simple words to herself, over and over again. Be patient. Be strong for long.

Meanwhile, her husband was muttering his own diatribe, wondering what the hell she was doing out there, just months after the surgery.

Warriner's win, in her first race over the ironman distance, means she becomes just the third woman in the history of triathlon to win an ITU World Cup event and an ironman.

The former short-course specialist admitted she was feeling the pain in the last 15km of the run leg.

"I was really hurting," said Warriner. "I had to hang tough and hope the crowd could pull me in. In the last few kilometres I was wondering where the hell the finish line was."

Both Carfrae and Lawn had days to forget, punctures on the bike leg probably costing them any chance of hauling in Warriner.

Carfrae was over 22 minutes behind Warriner at the start of the marathon (and made up 19) while Lawn reduced her deficit from 14 minutes to three over the course of the 42.4 km run.

"You have to keep going," said Lawn. "I was hoping [Warriner] would fade and start crawling. It is my first flat tyre in 28 ironmans so I can't complain - it was a good performance, I did all I could."

Japanese Maki Nishiuchi led the women out of the swim. Warriner was second, hitting the bike with a two-minute advantage on Lawn and Carfrae.

The non-stop rain brought up gravel and glass off the bitumen and both Lawn and Carfrae paid the price.

Lawn punctured just before the halfway mark and took 15-20 minutes to repair the tyre, struggling in cold conditions.

"My teeth were chattering so much," said Lawn. "A guy stopped to give me a jacket - if he hadn't I never would have got it off."