Sam Bradley (nee Warriner) has stepped back from competing full time to concentrate on mentoring her Sweat 7 team of athletes. But she showed her competitive spirit is as strong as ever in winning by nearly two minutes in 54:59.
Her last visit to the Mount was to win the Tinman over the standard distance on November 29.
"I don't do as much training but I am still competitive and I still love to race. I enjoy it and I have my team of eight athletes with me," Bradley said.
"This race has such a great atmosphere and gets everyone going after Christmas."
The super sprint distance race (375m swim, 8km cycle, 2.5km run) was a triumph for the Tauranga Triathlon Youth Academy.
Winner Nick Wotton (33:37), Jade Stafford (33:43) and Jamie Shields (33:48) took out the male race, with Hannah Howell first female home in (35:54) ahead of Abbie Mortimer (36:56) and Lucy Farrell (37:18).
Wotton, 14, said the academy run by Chris Willett, with support from professional triathlete Andrew Lloyd, had made a huge difference.
"Before I was in the academy I didn't do too well but last week I came fourth in the Future Champions tri in Taupo.
"This is my favourite event out of the Eves Triathlon series because of the ocean. I used to do Little Nippers surf training at Omanu when I was younger," Wotton said.
"The finish on the sand was quite hard but the King of the Mountain [Saturday] meant I had to run all the way down the sand so my legs were quite tired from that."
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