Taupo Half Ironman entrants furious over event refusal

Taupo Half Ironman entrants are furious months of training could be for nothing and are demanding an explanation from the town's council.
The eighth Half Ironman was due to be held in Taupo this December but the Taupo District Council has refused consent for the race after complaints about last year's organisation of the event.
An application to run the annual women-only triathlon at Kinloch in March has also been denied.
The council said there were problems with marshalling and a breach of entry limits with the two events last year.
Event organiser Shane Hooks said he would appeal but in the meantime, Half Ironman competitors are in limbo and upset their hard training may have been for nothing.
Athlete Nigel Sanderson said he was "absolutely furious" the event had been cancelled.
He said he already had several months of training under his belt and was unsure what he would now do.
It was to be his fourth Half Ironman.
The athlete, who has also completed two Ironman races, said he had never had any issue with the way the Half Ironman was run and said some of Mr Hooks' events were the safest in the world.
Fellow athlete Jack McKenzie is also extremely disappointed and said he had no complaints about the way it was run the three times he had competed.
"There have been one or two minor things that have gone wrong but you get that in any race," he said.
Mr McKenzie wrote to the council, asking for a "proper explanation" about why the event was not being allowed to go ahead but had yet to receive a reply.
Other competitors have voiced their fury on the Taupo Half Ironman website, labelling the council decision unfair.
Most stated they had already been training for months and had never had a problem with the way it had been run.
Mr Hooks said he would continue to fight the decision and would take the matter to court if he had to.
"If they do not review it, I will go to the High Court."
He said he had sent a request under the Official Information Act to obtain the complaints about the previous events from the council.
Council's Community and Recreation manager Jean Paul Gaston said the matter was still going through the review process and the council was busy gathering the information requested by Mr Hooks.
"Once we have all the information the review will take place," he said.