Busy time ahead for Foote

It's shaping up to be a busy few weeks for Rotorua's Sonia Foote.

The Forest Research Molecular Biologist is one of 12 local riders representing New Zealand at this weekend's prestigious Oceania Mountainbike Championships in Australia - however the dynamic athlete is also in the midst of preparing to defend her title at the Xterra off-road triathlon in Rotorua.

"I've just come off the national mountainbike series so I've been incredibly focussed on that," Foote told the Daily Post before departing for Australia. "Now the Xterra is a few weeks away and before that we've got the Oceanias in Melbourne so it means I've got a busy time over the next wee while. But I am feeling quite strong."

Foote will contest Saturday's cross-country event at Mt Buller and be joined by a strong New Zealand field including Athens Olympian Robyn Wong and recently crowned national champion Rosara Joseph, who also won the national series title in her first season competing at the pro-elite level.

Foote has also enjoyed a strong start to the year, winning the women's title in the NZ National MTB Marathon Championships, the 65km Matarangi Intrigue Marathon title and finishing second to Joseph in the Karapoti Classic, the pro-elite women's national Series and national cross-country championships, the latter which was held on the newly built 2006 UCI Mountainbike and Trials World Championship track on Mt Ngongotaha in Rotorua.

"We worked really hard, it's been a tough year - and there were some really good races going on. I was not disappointed with my results," Foote said.

After returning from Australia, Foote will focus on racing the Xterra - a 1km swim, 30km mountainbike and 11km run around the picturesque Tikitapu (Blue Lake) on April 16.

In 2003 Foote won the event, qualifing for the World Championships in Hawaii, and won the 25-29yr world crown.

Last year she gave a blistering performance on the bike to come from behind to beat international Ironman competitor Lynley Allison by two minutes and qualify for Hawaii again.

This year she is hoping to go for the treble.

"Even though I've focused primarily on the recently completed national mountainbiking series and qualifying for next year's Commonwealth Games, I know I am not prepared to give Xterra away - it's such a fun event," she said.

Foote will spearhead a strong team of local riders at this weekend's two-day Oceania Championships. Others include Mangakino rider Michael Northcott, who also won the cross-country series and the national championships, and is tipped by Bike NZ to be New Zealand's best chance of success in the men's cross-country, while Blenheim's Justin Leov is tipped to fly the downhill flag as New Zealand's highest ranked rider.

In the junior age groups, Rotorua's Clinton Avery, who powered his way to victory in the national expert junior men's cross-country championships and gave a blistering performance to finish second in the Colville Classic, is expected to dominate the boys' cross-country and will be joined by Micheal Tomasevic, Aaron Perry, John Gray, Peter Joynt and Carl Jones.

Pro-elite men's riders Rodney Hill, Stuart Houltham and Timothy Elsmore and junior women Monique Avery will also represent the province.

New Zealand is sending 48 riders to compete in the Oceania Mountain Bike Championships.

Team manager Dereck McCarthy said the size of the team reflected a rapid increase in the popularity of the sport.