Warriner commanding in Mexico - earns world number one ranking

Sam Warriner has ended the triathlon season in style, with a commanding victory at the Huatulco ITU BG World Cup this morning and in doing so, earning the world number one ranking for the year.

The Whangarei athlete was never in doubt after quickly erasing a 30 second deficit out of the non wetsuit swim to take control on the bike leg, winning both bike primes and setting the pace for the field, a pace that many found too hot to handle.

With temperatures rising to the high twenties, the lead group of four, having lost swim leader Sarah Haskins (USA) to a mechanical problem, entered second transition. Hewitt led out on the 10-kilometre run followed closely by Warriner. It was not long though before Warriner moved to the front, pulling away from the field. A 36:21 ten-kilometre run split was enough to assure Warriner the win. The Kiwi even had time to interact with the crowd before crossing the finish line.

The victory sees Warriner catapult into the top ranking, the second Kiwi behind Jenny Rose (1994) to achieve such an honour. 37 year old Warriner needed to finish just 7th or better today to grab the number one spot from Australian Felicity Abram and did that with plenty to spare.

Warriner was too strong for Sarah Groff (USA) and Andrea Whitcombe (GBR), both well regarded Olympic athletes who along with last week’s winner Lisa Norden (Sweden) were left in her wake. Team mate Andrea Hewitt (Chch) also finished her season strongly with a 6th place finish, her second top ten in consecutive races to end the season.

Sam Warriner audio will be posted at www.triathlon.org this morning with Sam also available at her hotel in Huatulco on numbers provided below.

Huatulco BG Triathlon World Cup
Elite Women - Unofficial Results
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Gold - Samantha Warriner (NZL) 2:14:02
Silver - Sarah Groff (USA) 2:14:45
Bronze - Andrea Whitcombe (GBR) 2:15:02
4 - Jodie Swallow (GBR) 2:15:17
5 - Lisa Norden (SWE) 2:17:23
6 - Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:17:58
7 - Vendula Frintova (CZE) 2:18:54
8 - Jillian Petersen (USA) 2:22:21