Triathlon: Kiwi women show top form

Andrea Hewitt finished third in Kitzbuhel to secure top place on the world championship rankings. Photo / Getty Images.

New Zealand's Olympics-bound women triathletes raced brilliantly in Austria this morning at the latest round of the ITU World Triathlon Series.

Andrea Hewitt finished third in Kitzbuhel to secure top place on the world championship rankings. Nicky Samuels was sixth and Kate McIlroy eighth.

Hewitt raced strongly at the front of the field throughout, duelling for the lead for most of the 10km run until Nicola Spirig (SUI) and Lisa Norden (SWE) pulled away in the closing stages.

Hewitt was able to hold off Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI) for third and delighted with her performance against a solid field.

"This was my last race before London," she said. "The good thing for me was that I still had running form just a week after my last race, so that shows my training is going really well.

"I'm happy I had a good race and now have over a month to finetune everything and prepare for the Olympics."

Samuels continued an amazing year that has included heart and appendix surgery as well as Olympic selection.

"It was a good little tick off as to where preparation is at. I set myself a pretty high goal of finishing top six in Kitzbuhel, and I did that.

"Most pleasing for me was that I had a really good run. I way well back on the first lap of the run, so to run up to 6th gave me some confidence."

McIlroy too was delighted with her performance, coming off the back of six weeks of hard training in Europe.

"I didn't have the best swim, but got on the bike and worked really hard. It was great to come through the run without any pain in my calf and I actually ran better than I'd expected.

"Nicky and I ran together on the second lap of the run, which was great because we surged off each other. Unfortunately I had to serve a 15-second penalty for not putting my goggles in the box, but I'm still really happy with eighth."

Of the other Kiwis, London reserve Debbie Tanner finished 17th and young Simone Ackermann gained vital experience in finishing 27th on the tough alpine course.

Results: 1. Nicola Spirig (SUI) 2:05:37, 2. Lisa Norden (SWE) 2:05:40, 3. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:05:43, 4. Barbara Riveroz Diaz (CHI) 2:05:45, 5. Jessica Harrison (FRA) 2:05:57, 6. Nicky Samuels (NZL) 2:06:07, 7. Sarah Groff (USA) 2:06:20, 8. Kate McIlroy (NZL) 2:06:23, 9. Anja Dittmer (GER) 2:06:39, 10. Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) 2:06:41. Also, 17. Debbie Tanner (NZL) 2:07:32, 27. Simone Ackermann (NZL) 2:11:42