Triathlon: Sarah Backler backs herself at end

Tauranga athlete Sarah Backley easily wins the Marra Sprint Triathlon. Photo/Ron Burgin

Sarah Backler, of Tauranga, put the final flourish to an outstanding local triathlon season when she won the women's Marra Sprint Triathlon event at Pilot Bay yesterday.

Despite struggling on the 750m swim leg and giving Aucklander Francesca Stafford and Te Puke's Deidre Lack some space, Backler surged to the front on the 20km bike leg to lead by 30 seconds at the transition to the final 5km run leg.

And no one was going to stop her claiming the title in a competitive time of 1h 02m 20s.

"It was a tough bike for me because I had to catch up after the swim leg, and there was not a lot left in the legs for the run, and the run [around Mauao] is always tough," Backler said.

"I was happy to win. This is my home venue and one of the things that makes it is the crowd on the sideline cheering you on."

Former winner Sam Osborne also gave his main rivals an early advantage in the men's race but stormed home to win in 54m 04s, ahead of 16-year-old Kyle Smith from Taupo (54m 57s) and Tauranga's Andrew Lloyd (55m12s).

Rotorua-based Osborne says he felt in charge as soon as began the run.

"I found my legs and just hit it. I was a good 15 seconds behind but there was a bit of game playing going on," he said. "I know I am in really good run shape so was not too keen to do a lot of work on the bike, which they knew.

"I came off a hard race last week at the Oceania Cup in Mooloolaba over the Olympic distance so it is always hard to back up two weekends in a row. I am stoked with it today."

Lloyd and fellow local triathlete Aidan Dunstan, who finished fifth, leave for Germany shortly for a northern summer competing at regional and international triathlons.

Lloyd found the Marra Triathlon difficult after a three week lay off following the Oceania champs in Australia.

"It was hard off no training but I am happy considering," he said. "It became quite tactical on the bike as we knew Sam was the favoured runner. The Mount is a wicked training ground and you can train on any day of the week and it is easy to run around. "But you put it at the end of a race and it is so much harder and it is never easy running around the Mount on the back of a hard bike. The podium is all right!"