Tayler Reid barely raised a sweat in taking out the Eves Surfbreaker Triathlon at Mount Maunganui's Main Beach yesterday.
The 19-year-old from Gisborne won the sprint distance of a 750m ocean swim, 16km cycle and 5km run, including the final 200m gruelling finish on soft sand, in a sharp timeof 49 min 23 sec. Taupo's Kyle Smith was second (50:39) with Papamoa's Aiden Dunster third (51:04)
"I am really happy to win. It is good to start the season off with a win. I was looking to blow some cobwebs off and go hard all the way. I was supposed to run the Tinman a few weeks ago but I crashed into a car on a training ride," Reid said.
"I love this event. I haven't done it for a while but I love that hard run on the sand to finish. Last time I did it I got third so thrilled to be two places better."
First home in the women's sprint distance was a familiar face now competing under her married name.
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."
