One of the world's fastest female triathletes, Australian Rebekah Keat, has been confirmed as a late entry for the fourth Challenge Wanaka long-distance race on January 16.
Keat was one of three women who went under the world record by more than six minutes at Challenge Roth in July.
Keat was second at Challenge Roth in 8hr 39min 24sec, with first-placed British athlete Chrissy Wellington producing a world record of 8hr 31min 59sec.
Third-placed Catriona Morrison, of Scotland, also broke the world record set at Roth last year by Dutch athlete Yvonne van Vlerken of 8hr 45min 48sec.
Keat joins a strong women's field in Wanaka which features defending champion and New Zealand record-holder Gina Crawford, former European champion and ITU world champion Lisbeth Kristensen, of Denmark, and regular top-10 iron-distance finishers Irene Kinnegim, of The Netherlands, and Rebecca Preston, of Australia.
Crawford set the Challenge Wanaka women's course record of 9hr 28min 27sec last January, while Australian Chris McDonald created the men's record of 8hr 37min 41sec.
The athletes need to shave between 13 and 17 minutes off the course records to win a $10,000 performance bonus from sponsor Western Pacific.
Last January, the performance bonus worth $4000 was set 33 minutes faster than the course records.
The professional athletes correctly predicted at a media conference before the race they would not achieve the mark given the roughly sealed road surface on the bike course, the overall terrain and the unsettled weather.
However, they also correctly predicted the winners should be capable of taking the record down 10 minutes.
Challenge Wanaka race director Victoria Murray-Orr believes with such a strong field in January there will be a very real chance the records could drop again.
The times had been adjusted to make the bonus more achievable, she said.
The times to beat are now 9hr 15min for women and 8hr 20min for men.
"It's going to be a very exciting race in both the men's and women's fields," she said.
