Tauranga Half Ironman field filled up days early

The full house sign has gone up for next week's Port of Tauranga Half Ironman at Mount Maunganui.

Race organisers have stopped taking entries several days early after they reached a capacity field for the 16th running of the annual triathlon that doubles as the NZ long distance championship.

Nine hundred triathletes will compete in the January 8 race, which features a 2km swim in Pilot Bay, four-lap 90km bike along Marine Parade, Oceanbeach Rd and Papamoa Beach Rd to Evans Rd and return, and two-lap 21km run around Mauao and along Marine Parade with a turn near Tay St.

Entries have flooded in over the past 10 days, which led the organisers to cut off entries before tomorrow's planned deadline.

"We're thrilled with the response from triathletes to reach our target before the deadline," event director Jane Patterson said. "The indications were that we could have taken quite a few more entries but all of our planning is for 900 competitors in total."

Patterson said the new organising team, involving race director Bruce Trask and other well-known Western Bay volunteer directors, were focusing on delivering a professional, safe and good value event for competitors, spectators and residents.

"First and foremost we want to run a really good and safe event which is enjoyable for competitors. The resources and product needed for the event was capped at 900 total athletes and our safety and traffic management plan was about managing this number.

"We know we're asking a lot from local residents to support the road restrictions that are in place to ensure this is a safely run race.

"We appreciate their support and don't want to push the envelope by taking more entries.

"Our research suggests that race competitors and their family and supporters will total about 3000, plus many, many more triathlon and sports fans to come to the region for this event."

There are 425 individuals registered for the race, starting at 7am, with swimmers from the 165 teams taking to the water 20 minutes after the individuals.

"We are also delighted with the quality of the field.

"We have a number of Olympians and world champions taking part which will add some real gloss."

It is also an important national championship for the age-group competitors.