This is our backyard and for 2018, the male field is the most competitive for some time with internationals Javier Gomez, Joe Skipper, Jesse Thomas, Jan van Berkel, Luke Bell, and Luke McKenzie. It will be a right royal ding dong as the Kiwis will want to win on home turf including Dylan McNeice, Dougal Allan, Braden Currie and Tony Dodds
And for the Kiwi females, Rose Watkinson is back, along with Laura Wood. They will battle it out with the likes of Laura Siddall, Annabel Luxford, Meredith Hill.
While the new Aquabike event has drawn some interest, this could well be the last full distance raced as numbers are low [approx.120] and the half seems perfect timing for Ironman NZ.
In the meantime, all the best to those racing – have fun out there.