KEY POINTS:
A disillusioned Shane Reed maintains he'll retire from triathlon if he misses the Olympics after he and Terenzo Bozzone gave the selectors a big headache here yesterday.
In a head-to-head duel for the third and final Olympic spot, Bozzone finished 14th and Reed 25th in the World Cup event won impressively by world No 1 Javier Gomez of Spain, ahead of Australian Brad Kahlefeldt.
The result left the third New Zealand spot at Beijing up in the air because neither finished in the top five, which would guarantee selection.
Athens Olympic silver medallist Bevan Docherty ran fourth yesterday but he and Kris Gemmell have already qualified.
Reed earned New Zealand a third Olympic spot by winning the Oceania championships in Wellington this month but the selectors refused to guarantee his position at Beijing.
"It was a lot of pressure today. It's quite tough after I raced Wellington three weeks ago. I got the spot for New Zealand but didn't get the spot for myself," said Reed.
"It's really hard to think that I got it for the country and someone else will come and get it."
Now at the crossroads of his career, Reed rated his Games chances at 50-50 as the selectors meet in the coming days to determine his future.
"I'll be annoyed to miss out, for sure, but if Terenzo makes it he's a strong athlete as well and he's still young. We'll still have an awesome team at Beijing.
"I'm pretty much ready to retire if I don't make the team. I'll race New Plymouth next week and that's it for World Cups anyway."
Reed, 34, is ranked 25th in the world, two places ahead of Bozzone, 12 years younger.
Meanwhile, Andrea Hewitt is confident she has done enough to book her triathlon spot for the Games after seeing off her main selection rival at Mooloolaba.
Hewitt, 22, tired on the run but was the leading New Zealand woman in 14th position, 1m 7s ahead of training partner Nicky Samuels, who was 20th.
It is now up to the selectors' discretion in the next week as to who claims New Zealand's third and final Olympic spot but Hewitt, ranked 15th in the world, feels she has done enough.
"It was huge - I had so much media and pressure with everyone saying 'good luck, you can do it'. I just managed to stay ahead of Nicky so I'm happy," said Hewitt.
"I was the top New Zealander so I'm confident."
Hewitt recorded 2h 04m 18s and Samuels 2h 05m 25s after being second and third going into the run.
Hewitt and Samuels both train in Europe under the same coach, John Hellemans, and eyeballed each other throughout yesterday's race.
Australian Emma Snowsill dominated the race to win ahead of reigning world champion Vanessa Fernandes, of Portugal, who was bidding for a world record 20th World Cup victory.
Of the other New Zealanders, Debbie Tanner was 22nd but she and Sam Warriner have already qualified for Beijing, while 2004 Athens Olympian Evelyn Williamson was 35th.
- NZPA
