Beijing Olympian Andrea Hewitt brings good form and fond
memories to this weekend's world championship series
triathlon event in Madrid, Spain.
The event is the second of seven in the lucrative ITU series,
and Hewitt is looking for a top finish after crashing heavily
in the opening race in Korea earlier this month.
The Christchurch triathlete has been training and racing in
France, and is happy with her form leading into the Madrid
event.
"I've had some consistent weeks of training leading up to
this race. I raced last weekend in a sprint distance
triathlon in France and was able to hold in there comfortably
with the leaders on the run."
Hewitt finished third in a four-way sprint finish.
She said temperatures were expected to be warm for the Madrid
race, and she was hopeful of repeating the form which saw her
finish second in the event in both 2006 and 2007.
"It's forecast for low 30degs this weekend, so with a
non-wetsuit swim and hot weather I hope to show my strengths
and bring my good form to Madrid," Hewitt said.
Wanaka's Nicky Samuels will also be contesting the Madrid
race, but has been hit by illness soon after arriving in
Europe. She will race regardless, knowing she has a good
break afterwards.
"I arrived in France last Wednesday and promptly fell sick on
the Saturday and wasn't feeling too flash.
"I raced in a club grand prix on Sunday with a poor result of
14th so I'm not looking too positively into Madrid. But I
have a break following it so I'll give it my best shot."
The third New Zealand woman lining up in Madrid, Sam
Warriner, has been concentrating largely on longer distance
races in the off-season.
She is hoping to atone for a disappointing eighth place in
Korea, whichwas not helped by a crash on the bike.
Warriner has enjoyed a great training block in America,
including a "training" personal best 10km run off a hard bike
ride, so she should arrive in Madrid with some confidence.
The New Zealanders will not have to contend with the dynamic
Australian duo of Emma Snowsill and Emma Moffat, first and
second in Korea.
Both have chosen to sit this race out before appearing again
later in the series - their best four results will count
towards the overall world championship, including the extra
points finale on the Gold Coast in September.
Portuguese world champion Vanessa Fernandez will also be a
non-starter after withdrawing this week to further
rehabilitate a broken collar bone suffered in early season
training.
But a strong contingent of European-based triathletes,
including 2008 world champion Helen Jenkins (Britain),
Luxembourg's Liz May and the German trio of Ricarda Lisk,
Anja Dittmer and Christine Pilz, mean the race will still be
hotly contested.
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