New Zealanders Fly The Flag At Duathlon World Champs This Weekend
A 21 strong New Zealand team will race this weekend at the World Duathlon Championships in Concord, North Carolina USA with Sam Warriner a surprise entry in the elite women’s race.
The team is made up largely of age group athletes but Warriner is further expanding her CV in a year that has seen her experiment with Half Ironman races as well as picking up the World Aquathlon title at the recent Gold Coast World Championships.
Warriner is joined by three others in elite racing, with Nathan Coombes and Nick Rennie competing in the U19 category while David Cooper will race in the U23 men’s event.
All racing will take place on the Saturday local time, albeit Concord is behind 16 hours behind New Zealand so results will be available Sunday New Zealand time. Racing is over 10km run, 40km bike and a 5km run to the finish.
Athletes earned their selection at the qualifying event in Christchurch earlier this year in the Contact Duathlon Series and have since been working towards their big day wearing the silver fern.
The athletes range in age from Tessa Walker in the 18-19 category through to John Wood who races in the 70-74 category. They represent a wide range of regions in New Zealand with Canterbury (6), Marlborough (1), Wellington (2), Kapiti (4), Taranaki (1) and North Harbour (1) all proudly sending duathletes away.
New Zealand Team
2009 Duathlon World Championships
Concord, North Carolina, USAElite Athletes
Nathan Coombes U19
Nick Rennie U19
David Cooper U23
Samantha Warriner Elite Women Whangarei
Age Group Athletes
Tessa Walker 18-19F Canterbury
Matt Milne 18-19M Canterbury
Kelly Parlane 20-24F North Harbour
Adam Milne 20-24M Canterbury
Sam Letham 20-24M Canterbury
Daniel Clout 25-29M Taranaki
Joshua Scott 25-29M Marlborough
Damon Peachey 30-34M Wellington
Rhonda Turner 35-39F Kapiti
Myles Cockburn 35-39M Overseas
Nicola Sproule 40-44F Auckland City
Murray Doughty 45-49M Wellington
Brenda Fortune 55-59F Canterbury
Christine Todd 55-59F Canterbury
Harold Robinson 60-64M Kapiti
Ann Bould 65-69M Kapiti
John Wood 70-74M Kapiti