Challenge Wanaka's defending champions, Marc Pschebizin, of
Germany, and Gina Ferguson, of Christchurch, are hoping to
repeat their record-breaking performances of last year when
they cross the finish line today.
Ferguson (28) finished in a women's course record of 9hr
33min 46sec last year, while Pschebizin (35) set a men's time
of 8hr 47min 49sec.
Both have to scrub off at least 33min from those times to win
a bonus $5000 prize, which they said at a media conference in
Wanaka yesterday would be unlikely given the roughly sealed
nature of the road surface for the bike course, the overall
terrain and today's unsettled weather forecast.
But they would still like to go faster than last year, with
other athletes agreeing it was possible to take the record
down 10 minutes in the right conditions.
Pschebizin said he was prepared to suffer on the 180km bike
leg and had been training in extreme and snowy conditions in
Germany to be mentally prepared for the likely winds and rain
expected today.
"Tough conditions, that would be good for me. If it was a
smooth [bike] ride, I won't apologise, that would be nice.
"But I think it is a hard ride, a fair race for everybody.
Everybody has to do the same ride," Pschebizin said.
Pschebizin won last year because of his fast marathon run,
which he completed in 2hr 48min to overhaul Chris McDonald
(30), of Australia, and beat him by just 2min.
Pschebizin said he hopes he has a similar run in him today,
but McDonald, who also wants the title, said he hoped not.
"I probably won't keep up. But hopefully I will be far enough
in front [on the bike] that it won't matter," McDonald said.
McDonald is one of the strongest cyclists in the field and
believes the nature of the pavement is such that the course
record could not be reduced by 30 minutes.
Anyone who could do that in Wanaka should be able to break
the course record at Challenge Roth in Germany, which is
acknowledged as the fastest long-distance triathlon course in
the world with an excellent cycle surface, McDonald said.
Luke Van Lierde set the Challenge Roth course record of 7hr
50min in 1997.
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