Triathlon: Team Tag Triathlon Relay had appeal

Annika Johnson completes her stint for the winning team, Tri J's, in yesterday's Team Tag Triathlon Relay at Napier's Pandora Pond. Photo/Paul Taylor

If there was a prize for the best name in yesterday's Team Tag Triathlon Relay in Napier, Had One, Having One and Still Practising would have been a popular choice.

The story surrounding the name of the team which finished second in the female section of the Avanti Plus Hastings-sponsored 47-team relay at Pandora is a beauty too. Had One is Bridget Lodge, the mother of a five-month-old daughter Mia, Having One is former New Zealand representative Naomi Fergusson who is four months pregnant and Still Practising is Baillie Triplow who is recently married and about to travel to South America with hubby, Havelock North Wanderers soccer player Brendon Triplow, for a belated honeymoon.

All three completed a 200m swim, 7km cycle and 2km run as the stopwatch stopped at the 1hr29m13s mark. The winning team in their section, Girl Power (Nic Baudinet, Linda Exeter-Grant, who is training for next month's Taupo Ironman, and Michelle Tomlison) recorded a time of 1hr27m09s.

Despite being four months pregnant, Fergusson clocked the fastest individual time of the competitors in the female team section with 26m44s.

"I've read books which have said if you've been active prior to becoming pregnant there's no reason why you can't continue to be as long as you be safe with it. They said as long as you don't over-heat and there was no chance of that in today's wet weather ... earlier in the pregnancy I completed a half ironman and another Hawke's Bay Multisport Club triathlon," Fergusson explained.

"Because I'm so competitive I do find it hard when athletes I normally beat pass me but I have to accept that," Fergusson said.

Next week Fergusson will travel to the South Island to be part of the support crew for two of the Hawke's Bay starters in the Coast to Coast event, Amber Morrison and Tom Alexander. Lodge, who had her third cycle ride since having Mia in the relay, pointed out one of the challenges for her and Fergusson was finding race suits to fit.

The overall winners of the relay was the winning mixed team, Tri J's, which consisted of Annika Johnson, her hubby David Johnson and Jeremy Natusch. A 2009 world long distance age group champion, Annika Johnson, 28, said their time of 1hr15m07s was a good effort considering she and David had recently returned from spending the summer holidays travelling overseas.

"We basically entered today's event to have a bit of fun. Our last serious event was the March Ironman last year. We will just do local tris for the rest of the summer," added the Hastings Girls' High School physical education and maths teacher.

The winning male team's name, Effort Effort & F-it, was also a cracker. This team of Callum Campbell, Anthony Ham and Glen Yule stopped the clock 1hr17m57s.