New Zealand athletes will double-up at this weekend's triathlon world championship series round in Lausanne, Switzerland by competing in both the individual and team events.
New Zealand, who finished third at the event last year, will field current women's world number two Andrea Hewitt with Nicky Samuels, Clark Ellice and Tony Dodds in their top team while Rebecca Kingsford and Penny Hayes will be joined by the more experienced Martin Van Barneveld and James Elvery in the second quartet.
The team event to be raced on Monday (NZt) will be a super-sprint distance triathlon consisting of a 275m swim, 6km bike and 1.5km swim before tagging their next teammate.
The men's individual event will be run late on Saturday night (NZt) followed by the women's race.
Triathlon NZ national coach Greg Fraine said that as well as a chance for Hewitt to consolidate or improve on her world ranking in the individual race, it was also an opportunity for New Zealand athletes to capitalise on the strong team culture that exists throughout the year.
"This team event is the chance to unite and race for each other and fully appreciate that silver fern on the uniform as a collective.''
The New Zealand lineups are missing front liners such Bevan Docherty, Kris Gemmell, Ryan Sissons, Kate McIlroy and Debbie Tanner because they are either concentrating on qualifying for next year's London Olympics or are injured.
So far only Hewitt has booked a spot at the Olympics after finishing sixth in the London round earlier this month.
- NZPA