TRIATHLON - Champion triathlete to contest second Olympics

Northland triathlete Sam Warriner will march into the record books as the first New Zealand woman triathlete to attend two consecutive Olympic Games after securing her place in the team at the official Olympic trial in Beijing, China on Saturday.
After pouring so much energy into the trial Warriner was forced down to a walk during the final leg of the race.
She finished sixth in the world cup event in Beijing, missing out on the podium finish she had set her sights on but, more importantly, she was the second New Zealander home and inside the top-10 finishers.
That met all the selection criteria set by Triathlon New Zealand (TNZ) to ensure Warriner has booked a place in the Olympic team in Beijing next year. The 34-year-old former school teacher has achieved her goal under huge pressure from her rivals and a punctilious selection panel.
Now she can spend the year with an Olympic medal in mind, a grace period she said will be welcome after enduring a difficult personal journey to the final trial on Saturday.
A TNZ training camp in Japan last week left no doubt that all Warriner's Kiwi rivals were out to beat her and score that Olympic spot.
"It was not my best day out there but I went to Beijing to get the Olympic spot and did that. I can't really say what that means. It is a huge relief really," Warriner said.
"It was a hard training camp leading up to this race. There was a few times when it was just so bad I wanted to just yell `aaaarrrrggghhh'. There was this `us and them' thing that was going on that just didn't suit me personally.
"I like to get on with everybody, but in the end I just had to get on with the job and try and ignore all the other stuff," she said.
Warriner is one of four New Zealand triathletes who secured their place at the weekend for the Beijing Olympics next year. Debbie Tanner finished fourth to grab one other spot and Bevan Docherty (3rd) and Kris Gemmell (4th) two places in the men's field.
Afterwards all of them were acknowledging it was a tough way to be forced to qualify, and a race that took a big toll, physically and mentally.
Warriner started well, emerging in the chase pack from the opening swim leg but then merging into the lead bunch during the cycle.
Once the run started it became clear that Portugal's world champion Vanessa Hernandez was going to win the race, and by the 5km mark on the 10km run clear that Warriner and Tanner were both going to qualify.
But on the last lap of the run Warriner hit the wall, severe cramps forcing her to walk on the downhill sections. But by then she had put enough time on her rivals to stay in the top 10.
"It was a bad day and I got sixth but last year when I had a bad day I would have got about 20th, so in many ways there are a lot of positives to take from the race. The biggest one is that I'm coming home, I have qualified for the Olympics, I am ranked in the top five in the world ... and I'm coming home," she said.
Warriner is set to arrive at Whangarei airport at 3pm tomorrow.