Hughes steeled for shot at a dream triathlon double

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 84

Hughes steeled for shot at a dream triathlon double

By

KEVIN TUTTY

John Hughes has sacrificed a lot to compete in the Double Brown ironman triathlon in Auckland tomorrow.

Two weeks ago he was to be married to Erin Baker, the world champion woman triathlete, but they decided to delay the wedding to allow Hughes to put all his time into preparing for today’s race. If everything goes to plan for Hughes and Baker tomorrow, they will have an alternative celebration to the one they had originally planned a fortnight ago. Baker is the favourite to win the women’s title for the second consecutive year, while Hughes is chasing first place in the men’s race. “I have trained for a year for this race,” said Hughes yesterday. “I have

been tired for a year building up for this race, and at the moment I’m bored sitting around waiting for the race to start.”

For the last six weeks Hughes has been piling on the training and is delighted with his preparation. He believes he has a realistic chance of winning the race, and to do that he will have to beat the highly ranked American, Scott Molina, who won the race two years ago.

At the world championships in Nice last October, Hughes finished seventh in the men’s race. “I feel I was short-changed after that race and didn’t get the recognition by the Americans I deserved, so I am determined to do well tomorrow. I’m not going out to be the first New Zealander home. I’m going out to be the first competitor home,” he said.

Hughes has been competing in short distance events rather than triathlons recently, but said he was suited to the longer races, and the 3.2 km swim, 160 km cycle and 32km run is ideal for him.

A stress fracture last year meant Hughes had not been able to tackle long training runs until two months ago — no longer than 90 minutes that is. Since then he has been running up to two and a half hours without any ill effects and will be able to tackle the 32km run tomorrow with confidence.

The hilly cycle leg will also suit Hughes who had a sporting background in cycling before turning to triathlons.

Swimming is his weakest discipline but he hopes to be no more than five minutes behind the first swimmer out of the water.

“If I am a bit more than that I won’t panic because I think I should be able to make up the difference on the cycle leg. I want to have a lead of several minutes at the end of the cycle leg,” Hughes said. Baker, who had influenza earlier in the week, has recovered and will do battle with Linda Buchanan, the American woman who was promoted to first in Nice last October when Baker was disqualified for taking a drink from a spectator. Baker said yesterday that she does not see the race as a grudge match between her and Buchanan. “Linda is all right. The problems in Nice were created by the officials not her. I just hope we have a good race and that the spectators appreciate it. I certainly hope they don’t boo her or do anything like that,” she said.