Kiwi Women Line Up In Picturesque Austrian City

New Zealanders Andrea Hewitt, Debbie Tanner, Nicky Samuels and Kate McIlroy line up at this weekend’s ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon World Champ Series race in Kitzbuhel, Austria, race four in the seven race series that will determine the 2009 World Champion.

The women’s race brings together an interesting match up between current world number one Emma Moffatt (Austalia) and Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes. Moffatt enters Kitzbühel on the back of wins at both the Washington leg of the series and the rich Des Moines World Cup whilst Fernandes has just one major competition under her belt, last week’s European Championships, where she finished third.

Andrea Hewitt is the best ranked of the Kiwi women heading into the race, after her win in Madrid and solid 6th placing in Washington and Des Moines Hewitt is third on the World Championship Series rankings. The Christchurch triathlete is looking forward to a race she has fond memories of.

“After three weekends of back to back racing and traveling to America, I have spent the past week back at my French home in Sète and enjoyed the familiar surroundings for training.

“This will be my fourth race in Kitzbuhel, and it brings back good vibes thanks to my first World Cup win there in 2007. I feel great, my form is really good and I want to maintain my current 3rd ranking in the World Series.”

By contrast 21st ranked Debbie Tanner has not had the greatest of starts to the series and is looking to put her marker down this weekend and in the process earn some valuable world ranking points.

“This weekend is my third race in the World Series and to be honest I am really looking to step up and improve on my previous performances. In order to try and combat the big time difference from Boulder (USA) to Austria, I have come over to Sigmarigen, Germany to join the Tri NZ 2012 potential squad at our base. The aim here is to get the body ‘reconfigured’ to go racing at a time of the day when for a few months it has been used to sleeping.

“Kitzbuhel is a spectacular venue, very similar to Queenstown with a lake swim and huge mountains surrounding the course. The bike course is technical and the run is pretty much flat so looking forward to the race in the weekend and putting in a strong performance.”

Wanaka’s Nicky Samuels lines up in her first World Championship Series or World Cup event since Madrid (in May) and comes in ranked 18th after steady showings in Korea and Madrid.

“Following my break I have had 4 solid weeks build up to this race. I have been training in Parthenay at my French club base. The training has been challenging as always in France with pool space limited and the terrain surrounding this area pretty tough but I have made the most of it and got some miles in.

“I will be looking forward to seeing where my fitness is at in Kitzbuhel. It is the start of a big racing block for me and it will be good to get back into it. Last time I raced in Kitzbuhel I was third and Andrea first, it was a good day for the ‘Hellemans’ athletes.

“This year in the WS races I aim for a top 15 place in each race, but my main goal in this race is to feel good in the run.”

Also lining up in the women’s race for New Zealand is Kate McIlroy (Wellington) in just her second World Championship Series event.