KEY POINTS:
When Kieran Doe moved to Auckland as a raw, over-eager teenager, he went on training runs with Hamish Carter and Cameron Brown in his bare feet.
A sponsorship deal with Nike failed to persuade the Feilding native of the need for shoes and he finished one triathlon with nothing more than a pair of Nike tattoos on his naked feet.
He's always been a bit different. Doe was controversially omitted from Triathlon New Zealand's elite team for the junior world championships in Queenstown in 2003 after he missed the final selection race through illness.
He entered the 20-24 age group race instead and blitzed the field to win gold. As he crossed the finish line, he raised his finger towards a group of officials from Triathlon New Zealand in what he claimed was no more than a victory salute. Others saw it differently but Doe had made his point and a name for himself at the same time.
Soon after Queenstown, he moved up to the half-ironman and ironman distances where he hoped he would have less to do with Triathlon New Zealand. Still, it seems he can't avoid confrontation.
"I had another run-in with them last month. We had to pay for our uniforms and our entry fee for the world championships in Canberra," says Doe.
"We pay for the uniform and they stick their sponsors all over it."
Despite his grievances, Doe will don the Kiwi uniform in Canberra on Sunday in the world long distance triathlon championships, hoping to cap a superb season with another podium finish.
Doe will look back on 2006 as the year he made headlines for his results rather than his reputation.
The highlight was his third place in the Challenge Roth triathlon in Germany in July. His time of 8 hours 11 minutes was reported as the fastest by a New Zealand athlete over the ironman distance.
Five-times New Zealand ironman champion Cameron Brown's last outing in Roth in 2002 was 10 minutes slower than Doe's. But Brown says the course has been shortened since then.
He also says Bryan Rhodes won the Malaysian Ironman in 2002 in just over 8 hours 10 minutes, giving him the honour of the fastest ironman by a Kiwi.
"It [Challenge Roth] is a fantastic race but I don't class it as a true ironman distance," says Brown.
Perhaps of more significance than the time was the company Doe kept at the front of the field, mixing it with Faris al Sultan, winner of the Hawaii Ironman in 2005 and Australian Chris McCormack, who finished second in Hawaii last month.
McCormack took over as Doe's coach this year and, while he isn't worried about passing on his trade secrets, you get the feeling he may have an ulterior motive.
"Maybe when I'm gone and Kieran is the number one in the world I could be the super coach with the greatest system in the world," says McCormack. The 33-year-old Australian may have one eye on his coaching career after his racing days are over but there is a simpler reason for the unlikely alliance.
"I liked Kieran. I liked his approach to racing.
"I like the swim-biker guys because they are brave racers. They have no choice, they have to go hard from the start," says McCormack.
Kiwi triathlete Nathan Richmond is in the same camp as McCormack about Doe.
"Kieran is an exciting athlete to watch because he gets himself to the front of the field. The best way to describe Doeboy is that he is unique," says Richmond.
Doe is also unique in that most of the leading ironmen athletes are in their 30s. He is still only 25.
Given his age and potential, his coach has suggested Doe is "the future of the sport".
He may have a bright future but Doe isn't concerned about reputations built on past achievements. Richmond says Doe has been known to engage in verbal sparring with his rivals.
"He has probably rubbed a couple of people up the wrong way but my suggestion to those people would be to use it as motivation."
McCormack defends his protege. "He is out there to win. He wants to beat you. A lot of people don't like what Lleyton Hewitt does in tennis but if the other athletes don't like what Kieran is doing, they need to put it out of their mind and worry about it later."
Doe says Brown is one athlete who can be distracted by trash talk. But New Zealand's undisputed king of the ironman says he isn't disturbed by such bravado.
"I have never heard him say anything to me but if he does, it would only spur me on," says Brown.
They may have different personalities but Doe and Brown are united by the same goal - to win the Kona Ironman in Hawaii. Doe's first visit to Kona in 2004 ended on a stretcher.
"I suffered. I found it hard swimming and biking and I didn't even get to the run. You feel crap, tired, heavy - the heat just does something to your body."
Doe has qualified for next year's Hawaii but would be satisfied to finish the event. Brown, who has two second and two third place finishes in Kona to his credit, makes it clear the pretender needs to prove himself in Hawaii before he can be considered a challenger to his crown.
"Hawaii is the pinnacle of the sport and it is the only race where you can judge where people are and make comparisons."
If Brown is yet to be convinced, Doe's former coach Jack Ralston is in no doubt Doe has what it takes. "Eventually he could be one of our best ironmen. I think he could rank very highly in Kona," says Ralston.
Kona can wait. For now Doe's focus is firmly on Canberra.
