Multisport: On track for Kaimai Classic

Graham O'Grady will put a tumultuous start to the year behind him when he lines up in tomorrow's Kaimai Classic, as Jamie Troughton writes.
The quiet roads of Te Puna in autumn are a long way from a seething Pilot Bay in the middle of summer but it's been an even longer trek for Graham O'Grady.
When the 29-year-old takes the tag from kayaking teammate Andrew Roy in tomorrow's Kaimai Classic and kicks into cadence on his Jamis road bike, he'll end an agonising four months on the sporting sidelines.
After winning the Port of Tauranga Half in January, he was stripped of his title for eating a poppy seed bread which metabolised into morphine and caused him to test positive for drugs.
The New Zealand Sports Tribunal eventually cleared him of any wrongdoing but he still forfeited his title under strict sports drugs rule. Now he just can't wait to get back into action.
"I really enjoyed racing locally over summer and it's nice I can be back on the start line nearby," O'Grady said.
"I do a lot of time-trials in my training so it will give me a good little hit-out and it's another way to support people who've helped me."
He's needed a fair bit of help, too.
Not surprisingly, O'Grady rates the three-month ordeal as the hardest of his career. Until the decision came out at the end of March, he was in limbo.
"The support from my family and friends got me through and everyone in the triathlon fraternity has got behind me. I still love the sport and have a passion and desire to do well. I wasn't going to let it stop that.
"The hardest thing for me was not being able to talk to people about it and I worried about how people were going to perceive it and what they were going to think. But I knew I hadn't done anything wrong and so did the people who knew about it, and they were really supportive."
O'Grady will use tomorrow's race as buildup for his first ironman distance race in early June.
And he's landed a spot with the favourites for the teams division in the Kaimai Classic, with the Jamis Dragons featuring some decent names.
They'll be lead out by ultra-distance runner Russell Lake, with team captain Jon Hume tackling the 17km mountain bike, New Zealand junior kayaker Roy handling the river component and former Commonwealth Games marathoner Craig Kirkwood doing the final run.
Hume's delighted to have O'Grady on board and expects a lot of support for him.
"He raced superbly when he won the Half in January and it was a pretty popular win," Hume said. "He's been through the ringer but we're stoked he's picked this race to make his comeback."
Tomorrow's race will also see Mount Maunganui's Dwarne Farley aiming for an incredible eighth title, a reign only broken by Richard Ussher's win in 2009.
Tauranga's Sonya Thompson will also be hoping for another victory.
O'Grady, meanwhile, hopes to get through the Cairns race intact, race in the United States during winter and come back strong to win back his Half title.
"I can't wait until next summer. It's given me fuel. It makes me want to win that crown back even more.
"Training's going really well and I'm pretty on track, though ironman's completely different from what I've done previously. I was also supposed to have had a few more races in me before Cairns but things seemed to conspire against me."
11th ANNUAL KAIMAI CLASSIC - Sunday, 8am start
5km SAUCONY off-road run inside McLaren Falls Park
17km JAMIS mountain bike following the Ruahihi Canal
11km WAIMARINO kayak down the Wairoa River
26km CYCLE OBSESSION road bike around the streets of Te Puna
11km SMITHS SPORT SHOES run through Te Puna countryside