Wanganui endurance athlete Gina Crawford produced a personal best on Sunday in taking second place in the Taupo half-ironman.
The 31-year-old was second to Sam Warriner - as she was the week before in the Tinman Triathlon at Mt Maunganui - but she narrowed the gap between the pair of elite athletes.
Crawford's time of 4 hours 27.34 minutes was just under three minutes adrift of Warriner, the 2008 triathlon World Cup series winner and Commonwealth Games silver medallist. At the Mount, the difference was five minutes.
Crawford came out of the 2km swim in second place but with a 10-second lead on Warriner, however, her rival was soon ahead on the 90km bike leg.
They entered the 21km run with five minutes between them and Crawford believes that if she had pushed harder on this final section, she might have taken the win.
"I felt really good on the run but I really didn't know how hard I could push as I haven't raced such a long distance in such a long time," she said.
"After the race I was a little annoyed that I didn't trust my body and run really hard."
Still, she was pleased to be below 4 hours 30 minutes for the first time, while Warriner broke the course record by 10 minutes to record 4:24.37.
Crawford is in a confident mood as she prepares for the Challenge Wanaka ironman in January.
Another Wanganui athlete, Candice Hammond, was third ahead of defending champion Belinda Harper. Hammond, now based in Cambridge, recorded 30m 39s for the swim, 2:27.12 for the bike and 1:26.39 for the run for a final time of 4:30.11.