Shaw gearing up for Port of Tauranga Half challenge

Rotorua's Ollie Shaw is gearing up to compete for the Port of Tauranga Half elite title. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Rotorua's Ollie Shaw is gearing up to challenge for the Port of Tauranga Half elite title after training hard over the Christmas period.

Shaw, 25, is competing in the 28th version of the event with the elite field, taking on the 2km swim at Pilot Bay, 90km bike leg and 21.1km run, including two circuits around the base track of Mauao tomorrow. Shaw, an Xterra professional athlete, said he was feeling confident and prepared after a "lean Christmas" despite having to pull out of the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman 70.3 in Taupo last month after suffering a hefty puncture during the bike section.

"I'm feeling pretty good," he said. "I feel I've had a solid block of recent training despite what happened in Taupo. It was unfortunate but that sort of thing happens in this sport.

"I made sure to be careful over Christmas and I want to put in a good performance. Training has been very consistent and I feel my swimming has come on a lot."

But Shaw, who has had training support from the Rotorua Association of Triathletes and swim coach Henk Greupink, will have tough competition in a high-quality field led by defending champion Braden Currie, 30, and 2013 champion Graham O'Grady, 37.

"It's going to be very difficult. Braden will be the one to watch because he'll want to defend his crown and I've competed with him a lot and he's an awesome athlete," he said.

"And then you have the likes of Graham also. I'll just have to be on the top of my game throughout and my tactics will be to perform consistently across the three disciplines. Working with Henk has helped a lot and I want to be pushing out in front during the swim."

Another to watch will be Aucklander Cameron Brown who won for the first time in 1998 and for a while he seemed unbeatable. He claimed seven straight titles from 1998-2004 before world-class Australian Craig Alexander won the first of his two titles to break the sequence.

Brown triumphed again in 2007, 2012 and 2014 and at the age of 44 is in the mix for another title.

But a Whakatane duo could also challenge for the top places.

Sam Clark, 25, finished second to Currie in the 2015 Coast to Coast then took advantage of Currie's absence to win last year. Hayden Wilde, 19, who now lives in Tauranga, won the two-day event at last year's Coast to Coast, and makes his first appearance in the Port of Tauranga Half.

The women's field also features the defending champ, with Hawke's Bay's Amelia Rose Watkinson back after she dominated the women's field last year, winning by 12m 56s.

At 25, she is established as New Zealand's leading women's long-distance triathlete and had an outstanding year in 2016, winning 10 long-distance events in Asia.

Her competition will come from 2011 runner-up Anna Cleaver, Julia Grant, who was third in 2015, and former Rotorua Marathon winner Erin Furness.

Established triathletes Teresa Adam and Rebecca Clark are also stepping up to the long-distance format after strong short-course careers.

2017 Port of Tauranga Half - course records:

Male: 3:47:54
Nathan Richmond (2006) and Graham O'Grady (2013)

Female: 4:10:47
Samantha Warriner (2009)

Most titles:

Male: 10
Cameron Brown 1998-2004, 2007, 2012, 2014

Female: 4
Joanna Lawn 2006-2007, 2011-2012