Multisport: Foote keeps her cool to win triathlon in record time

Triathlete Sonia Foote. Picture / Daily Post (Rotorua)

ROTORUA - Sonia Foote has little time to celebrate her gutsy Xterra off-road triathlon victory at the weekend.

After defending her 2004 women's title and setting a course record of 2hrs 47mins 39secs following a calculated race over the 1km swim, 30km mountainbike and 11km trail run, the Rotorua-based molecular biologist is preparing to spend the next seven weeks on the European mountainbike circuit.

Foote leaves for Belgium on Wednesday to compete in the opening cross-country races of the World Mountainbike Cup Series in the leadup to October's UCI World Mountainbike Championships in Lavigno, Italy --- a qualifying race for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

"I'll be competing in races in Belgium, Spain and Germany and will do some racing - Swiss Cup, French Cup in between," Foote said today.

Foote can take satisfaction from beating arguably the most competitive women's Xterra field ever.

Foote came out of the water in an ordinary time of 22mins 43secs, trailing Olympic triathletes Sam Warriner and Evelyn Williamson and Commonwealth Games triathlete Heather Evans, by a staggering eight minutes.

But Foote, who finished second in February's national mountainbike cross-country champs, blitzed the challenging bike course to enter the bike/run transition in first place, three minutes over Williamson.

Urged on by a large and vocal crowd, Foote kept her cool running two laps around Tikitapu (Blue Lake) and punched the air in delight as she won.

She also qualified for the Xterra World Champs in Maui, Hawaii in October.

Williamson finished second, Warriner third and Evans fourth.

"It was awesome, this event has such an amazing atmosphere and when I came out of the swim I had to give it death on the bike and slowly reel people in," Foote said.

"There were heaps of people out there calling splits, which were really helpful, and when I got back off the bike into transition, it was the most amazing sight ever."

Following a six-month layoff since his emphatic gold medal triathlon performance at the Athens Olympic Games, Hamish Carter led the men's event the whole way, finishing just outside his own race record in 2hrs 16mins 30secs.

Carter gave his supporters high fives as he ran into the finish chute -- marking not only a return to race form but also sending a clear signal to New Zealand selectors that he wants a ticket to next year's Commonweatlh Games in Melbourne.

"It was brilliant, it was really good, it was a really fun race and great to get into the swing of things and into racing again," Carter said.

"The first race back is always pretty tough, so do to a race like this is a bit more fun. I was a little bit slow on getting changed into each transition and there were patches where I lost concentration a little, but I am stoked - I did a lot better than I anticipated and I am really pleased."

Tauranga's Jon Hume finished second in 2hr 25min 47secs while Wellington's Sam Mallard took third and Taupo's Bryan Rhodes fourth in the pro-men class -- all three suffered a flat tyre on the mountainbike leg.

- NZPA