Triathlon: Repeat podium finish for Olly Shaw

South African Conrad Stoltz after winning Xterra New Zealand in Rotorua at the weekend. Photo/Ben Fraser

Rotorua triathlete Olly Shaw has finished on the podium for the second year running at Xterra New Zealand.

The 22-year-old has a bright future in Xterra off-road triathlon and finished third at Tikitapu (Blue Lake) on Saturday behind favourites Conrad Stoltz (South Africa) and Ben Allen (Australia).

"To race Conrad and Ben here is invaluable for me," he said.

Shaw said he wanted to be right up there with them one day winning Xterra events around the world.

Shaw said racing in his hometown was pretty special on Saturday.

"I love this course and just the atmosphere. Everyone was cheering for me, it is my favourite race of the year."

Four-time Xterra world champion Stoltz won the elite race in a time of 2hr 4min 51sec, 40 seconds ahead of Allen and two and a half minutes ahead of Shaw.

The 40-year-old triathlete said it was his first Xterra win of the season after some tough results earlier in the year.

"It's really good to get the monkey off my back," he said. "I have always wanted to come to New Zealand for Xterra but I have been racing in the United States. So it has been amazing to come out here."

Stoltz took the lead from Allen during the mountain bike leg in the Whakarewarewa Forest and held onto his lead during the 11km trail run.

He said there was a big climb near the start of the mountain bike course but after that the trails were simply amazing.

"I couldn't get the smile off my face," he said. "I feel like taking a shuttle tomorrow and having a look at the other trails I didn't get to see [during the race]."

Stoltz said he and his wife, former Kia Magic netball player Liezel Wium, now Liezel Stoltz, had really enjoyed their time in New Zealand.

Australian Allen was going for his third straight victory at Xterra New Zealand on Saturday but a spill on the mountain bike cost him.

Rotorua's Sam Osborne also performed well at the weekend, finishing in fourth spot.

In the women's elite race, Barbara Riveros from Chile finished ahead of Great Britain's Jacqui Slack.

"Pretty happy with my performance today," Riveros said, after winning her first Xterra race.

"It's hard to spend much time on my mountain bike because my focus is ITU and next month we start qualification for Rio."

Riveros finished eighth last weekend at the ITU World Triathlon Series opener in Auckland and is working towards the Olympics in 2016.

She said she decided to stay in New Zealand an extra week to compete in Rotorua, which has qualified her for the Xterra World Championship race in Hawaii in October.

Riveros won in a time of 2hr 18min 32sec, nearly six minutes ahead of Slack and nine minutes ahead of Sarah Backler from Tauranga.

Heavy rain on Friday had little affect on the course which included a 1km swim, 26km mountain bike and 11km run.

The Paymark Xterra Rotorua Festival attracted about 2000 people on Saturday, taking part in different events.