Multisports: Warriner opts for Games build-up

Athens Olympian Sam Warriner will relinquish her reign as the queen of the Tauranga Half Ironman next month as she starts to focus on a medal winning bid at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games next year.

Warriner, now ranked eighth on the world triathlon circuit, has not entered the event which she won in emphatic style last season with the build- up to the Commonwealth Games race in March now driving her competitive calendar.

"I haven't entered because it is just too close to the Commonwealth's for me. It took a long time to recover last year, and I just can't afford to risk everything to defend the title, as much as I would like too," Warriner said.

"It was pointed out to me that I can go back again and race the Tauranga Half, but for me the Commonwealth's are a once in a lifetime opportunity," she said.

The shift in focus follows Warriner's disappointment after she finished 19th in the World Cup race in New Plymouth last month, a performance which jolted her confidence and made her rethink her programme.

Since then Warriner has signed up Mark Bone as her swim coach and travels to Auckland to train with the rest of the New Zealand triathlon elite squad and has now defined her programme, counting down to race at in Melbourne.

"Right now it is base training, lots of kilometres in the pool, cadence work on the bike and long runs," she said.

"I work through all the training phases which get steadily more demanding and depending on how things are going will either race the Oceania Cup race in Hobart, Tasmania or the Australian triathlon Sprint nationals on the Gold Coast in March," she said.

Warriner's withdrawal means both of the winners from last year's event will be absent from the race which is Tauranga's biggest sporting event and is now established as one of the premier half ironman races in Australasia.

Men's winner Cameron Brown has also pulled out of the individual race and will compete as part of a team instead.

Last year the top five female finishers included two age-group athletes, Taupo's Fleur Bromley (third) and Australian Natalie Smith (fifth), behind Warriner.

It was also the slowest women's race in 12 years.

But race director Jane Patterson has managed to sign-up triple Ironman New Zealand champion Jo Lawn. Lawn has confirmed she will race, giving a significant boost to the women's field.

Lawn cruised to her third consecutive victory in the longer event in Taupo this year and scored her best result at the world championships in Hawaii six weeks ago when she finished fourth.

The 31-year-old is targeting the Tauranga race in a bid to propel her 2006 season to even greater heights.

Two-time winner Karyn Balance, who was injured this year, and Taupo's Fiona Docherty are possible entries, while Patterson believes a couple of North American women will also compete while building up to Taupo.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)