Off-road Triathlon: Triathlon trio on track for success

Local athlete Olly Shaw will head a small group of Rotorua athletes competing at the Xterra World Championships in Hawaii next weekend. Photo / Ben Fraser

While most people travel to Hawaii for a holiday, three Rotorua athletes will make the trip for the Xterra World Championships.

The 2014 Xterra World Championships (off-road triathlon) will be held in Maui next Sunday, attracting the best off-road triathletes in the world.

Xterra professional Olly Shaw will head a small group of Rotorua contenders, which includes young talent Lewis Ryan and Grant Utteridge.

Ryan, 16, is making his first appearance at the world champs and said he had one main goal for his age-group race.

"Obviously I want to go to win and I think I can," he said. "I've been training all year for this one."

Ryan will race in the 15-19 age group after qualifying for the world champs at Xterra New Zealand in April.

Ryan is an under-17 mountain biking national champion and has been working hard on his swimming and running this year, with local coaches Mark Leishman and Alastair Johnson.

"I have been down at Swim Rotorua with Alastair and he has been whipping me into shape, and I am coached by Mark "Cabin" Leishman for running and biking."

He said he was feeling a lot stronger than when he raced Xterra New Zealand in April.

"I feel so much better, that was the first ever triathlon I had done. I feel much more prepared."

The Xterra World Championships include a 1.5km rough water swim, a 30.4km mountain bike and a 9.5km trail run. Ryan said his race plan was just to go hard next weekend.

"I'm not going to go with all that conserve your energy stuff, I'm just going to go for it," he said. "Try and stay up in the swim and push it real hard on the bike." He said he had trained with Shaw in Rotorua recently and had really learned a lot from him and from Leishman.

Ryan and his family will travel to Hawaii on Sunday, giving him time to prepare for the race in the 30C-plus heat.

Rotorua pro Shaw won the 20-24 age group world title in Hawaii in 2012 and will take part in his first Xterra world champs at elite level this year.

Shaw moved into the Xterra professional ranks in 2013 but injury struck halfway through last season, forcing him to miss the world champs last year.

Utteridge will also race in the 50-54 age group next weekend.

The Xterra world champs will attract about 800 competitors. There is also US$105,000 in prize money up for grabs, with US$20,000 ($25,000) given to the winning man and woman.