Kiwis Mid Field In Heat Of Mooloolaba

It was a tough weekend for the Kiwis at the ITU World Cup in Mooloolaba this weekend, with Debbie Tanner coping with the heat best to finish 10th in the women’s race with Nicky Samuels 14th while in the men’s Martin van Barneveld was the best in 14th and James Elvery 20th in a steady return for the Kiwis on the opening World Cup event of the 2010 year as Aussie Brad Kahlefeldt took line honours from Great Britain’s Stuart Hayes and young Aussie James Seear.

Wellington’s van Barneveld has never enjoyed racing in Mooloolaba so is pleased to finally have a strong finish to his name, albeit he was hoping for a top ten.

“I didn't quite run as fast as what I had planned on before the race, but I am still happy with my race. Mooloolaba has never treated me well and is super hard. Well I managed to finally get a good race under my belt here which I am stoked about.

”I had a good swim, and although missed front pack coming up onto the beach at the end I was still in a good group of athletes who worked well enough to catch front pack pretty early on the bike. The bike then became a Sunday cruise, while two Aussie boys were up the road. Eventually most of the field was in the lead bunch so it was going to come down to a run. It was also good to see most of the Kiwis were in this group.

”This race is just so relentless; the run just never gives you any form of break. You work hard up the hill, and then can't ease off down the hill because you have to push just to hold your position. Thankfully we raced quite late in the day so there was a quite a lot of shade on the run course.

“I had set a goal of running 33mins before the race because I had worked out that would get a top 10 finish. I was on track for the first 2 laps, but still went out a fraction to hard on first lap, so meant that on such a tough course I paid the price on the 3rd lap. But still was happy to be 14th and first kiwi home is always a good little bonus.

James Elvery was pleased with his performance given he has endured a disrupted build up due to injury.

“It’s always hard here in Mooloolaba with the hills and the heat and today was just another ‘sufferfest’ out on the run. No one really wanted to work up front on the bike in the heat so it all came together with a couple of laps to go.

“While not happy to be finishing midfield, I am pretty happy with a second solid result after Wellington considering my limited running preparation over the summer. Basically I had 3 months off running from November to the end of January with some tendon inflammation in my shins and have had to build back up slowly since then. I'm looking forward to getting through Sydney in 2 weeks and then finally getting stuck into the base work I've missed out on to set me up for a big 2010 international season.”

In the women’s race today Tanner and Samuels were the best of the Kiwis as World Duathlon Champion Vendual Frintova (CZE) won a thrilling sprint finish narrowly outpacing Japan's Tomoko Sakimoto and Great Britain's Liz Blatchford.

Wanaka’s Samuels was pleased with her continued improvement after a later than usual start to her summer.

“The swim was my main focus today. With the American athletes as always pushing the pace out front I knew I had to stay focused. I had a terrible start but managed to come back from that and stay in touch with the lead group all the way back to the beach.

“Onto the run and the temperature was soaring beyond 30 degrees Celsius. I started conservatively as I knew it was going to be a tough day with the course including 8 hill repetitions and the sun continuing to shine down. Into lap 2 I felt good and began to push a bit more but half way through lap 3 the heat was taking its toll as I started to lose some form and began to fade, I then focused on finishing the race off.

“With the first of the races down, I look forward to two weeks time in Sydney. I feel like I have got the cobwebs out from the summers training and really want to give Sydney a good shot. So here’s hoping for a race more my style, and some rain or at least colder weather.”