Triathlon: Triathletes on form for world series

Bevan Docherty. Photo / Kenny Rodger

New Zealanders Bevan Docherty and Kris Gemmell will meet some of the world's top triathlon competitors at a new world championship series in Korea this weekend.

The pair are competing in the opening round of the ITU world championship series in Tonyeong which is expected to draw the best in the sport.

The race is the first of seven in the series, with points counting towards end-of-year rankings.

Each event has a prize pool of US$150,000 ($265,000).

Docherty, who has been in good form over summer, said he was pleased with the high quality of the new series.

"It's a great concept and means most of the races are going to be far more competitive and bring a high profile to the sport. I'm really excited about what should be a great year of racing," he said.

"We have been pushing for this for a long time. The higher quality of fields will result in higher exposure around the world and hopefully back here in New Zealand."

Gemmell said that although Germany's Jan Frodeno and Spain's Javier Gomezwith will not be there, "the ones on the start line are no slouches, it will be interesting to see what form they are all in".

Sam Warriner, who won the Tonyeong race last year, joins three other New Zealand women contesting the event - Andrea Hewitt, Debbie Tanner and Nicky Samuels.

Warriner said she was looking forward to the race after a stingray attack just hours before the California 70.3 half ironman earlier this month. She eventually finished seventh in the event.

She said she realised later that she had been lucky to escape serious injury.

Warriner flew home to Whangarei just six hours after the California race, where an ultrasound scan showed the stingray's barb had penetrated into her ankle by 1.4cm and missed a tendon by 4mm.

- NZPA