Hannah Berry and Jack Moody are back to defend their elite Tauranga Half titles while national championship glory and a destination half a world away will be on the minds of age groupers also set to contest the Fulton Hogan Mount Festival of Multisport on Saturday.
The first big event of the 2025 Kiwi triathlon calendar features the Loan Markets Oceanside Tauranga Half and the Tri NZ Suzuki Series Aquabike Championships.
For age groupers, both races are official qualifiers for the 2025 World Triathlon Multisport Championships scheduled for Pontevedra, Spain from June 21-29. As many as 16 spots per age group, per gender will be on the line for age groupers who will compete over the same race track as the elites on Saturday.
Berry’s main competition in the women’s 2km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run race is expected from visiting Brit Fenella Langridge, a former Ironman Western Australia and Challenge London winner. The 32-year-old PTO world No.44 rattled off four top 10s in 2024, highlighted by 4th at Ironman Hamburg, before finishing 16th at the Ironman World Championships in Nice.
Berry, up to 29th in the PTO rankings, was a momentous 10th in Nice during a breakout 2024 which saw her finish 4th overall in the inaugural Ironman Pro Series.
The Mt Maunganui 34-year-old started her marquee year with a 3:58:48 victory in the Tauranga Half last January and will look to match Joanna Lawns’ (2006,2007, 2011, 2012) record four Tauranga Half victories this Saturday.
Writing on social media earlier this week, Berry said she was looking forward to her first hit-out of 2025 after previous Tauranga Half wins in 2019, 2020 and last year.
“First proper training week back after a break complete, and only 1 day was terrible. Pretty good for a first week back, “she said.
“Feeling a little less fit, but far more rested than December (which heart rate is confirming), and excited to keep working hard to thrive in 2025 ✨
“Planning for 2025 is underway, which feels like a jigsaw puzzle at this stage. But I think a plan is slowly starting to form excited for another big year ahead!”
Berry and Langridge headline a six-strong elite women’s field which also includes Swim Bike Run contributing editor Hannah Knighton on debut after she missed last year through injury, second season pro Heather Neill and the experienced Samatha Kingsford and Fiona Gallagher.
After three runner-up finishes and two bronze medals, Moody finally exorcised his Tauranga Half voodoo last year, easing away from Cantabrian Mike Phillips in the final kilometre to win 3:33:33.
Former Ironman NZ champion Phillips is again expected to provide the stiffest challenge to Moody’s title defence. It will be an intriguing early season marker, pitting overall 2024 Challenge Series champion and PTO world No. 62 Moody, 31, against Ironman Pro Series campaigner and 2019 Tauranga Hald champion Phillips.
World No.51 Phillips started a mammoth 11 races in 2024 with podiums in Tauranga, the Challenge Wanaka Half (2nd), Ironman Australia (2nd) and Ironman Cairns (3rd) the highlights. The 34-year-old was also 17th at the Ironman World Championships in Kona and 21st in the 70.3 World Championships in Taupo on December 15 – one spot behind Moody.
Kiwi journeymen Scott Harpham, Tom Somerville and Brett Clifford, and Aussie up and comer Harrison Wiles are others to watch while the step up in distance for NZ short distance reps Trent Thorpe and Lachlan Haycock is highly anticipated.
Thorpe and Knighton will co-host a Tri NZ/ASICS ShakeOut Run from 5.15pm on Friday, with an easy lap of the Mount base track.
Saturday’s Tri NZ Suzuki Series Aquabike Championships will be decided by 2km of swimming in Pilot Bay and 90km of mainly flat but often wind impacted biking. The MetService forecast calls for cloudy skies to clear, a max temperature of 22 degrees C, with nor-easterlies developing later on Saturday.
