This is the new theme, ITU > Ironman > ITU. After Macca, Warriner at 40 years old wants to go to London and she wants to be a domestique for Hewitt.
From NZHerald
Samantha Warriner is considering a comeback to Olympic distance triathlon with a view to competing at the London Games.
The two-time Olympian has been competing at the longer 70.3 and Ironman distances since the end of the 2008 season when she was the overall International Triathlon Union World Cup winner. She could not translate that to Beijing Olympic success where she finished 18th, having come 16th at Athens four years earlier.
Warriner turned 40 in August and, with two places still available on the New Zealand women’s team for London, she is weighing up another crack at the 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.
« I really don’t know which way to head. I’m not prepared to make a decision yet but I’m enjoying being back racing [shorter distances]. I’m wondering what the qualifying standards are – I might have a go. »
Warriner would have to compete at the ITU world championship series event at Sydney in April. Triathlon New Zealand (TNZ) wants a male and female athlete to get top eight results at that event to qualify a spot before they resort to selecting on the basis of discretion.
Andrea Hewitt is the only New Zealand name inked in for the Olympic team so far, on the back of her sixth at the London world championship series event in August.
To read the rest, it’s here
18th at the Olympics is not success? How many triathletes race at the Olympics? I’m not necessarily in favour of the « just happy to be here » mentality, but here’s got to be a middle ground between that and « anything but gold/silve/bronze is a failure. » I think when people flip back and forth like that, they must not be happy doing the trainng, because if they were, they would not feel the need to try to « game » the result by moving back and forth like that.
Good point, I should write an article on that. I think triathlon is a little particular with the olympics… They are 64 on the starting list.
I think it all depends on where you are standing before the Olympics. Finishing 18th at the Olympics for stars like Michael Phelps, Mo Farah, the Bronwlee brothers or any Kenyan marathoner would be quite disappointing…