Challenge Wanaka athlete Jamie Whyte (NZ) is in good shape to defend his title on Saturday against one of the best professional fields ever seen for a Challenge race in the world.
Whyte said he had been targeting this as the big race for the summer, he was peaking for the event and training had been "spot on".
Last year's runner up Courtney Ogden (AUS) is looking to put in a good performance after a disappointing result in his last race at Busselton, Western Australia last month.
Bryan Rhodes (NZ), one of the true characters of iron-distance racing, will be competing in the Challenge for the first time after doing it in a team in previous years.
Rhodes said it would always be the plan to go hard from the gun and being a strong swim-bike athlete he was glad Kieran Doe (NZ), another formidable swim-bike athlete, would be out the front to give him some company.
Doe said he was on a high after becoming a father this week and it would be great to cap the week off with a win. As a strength athlete, he said he would prefer windy conditions and having Rhodes there to work with would make things a little easier.
"Training has been going really well. I had a bit of a set back three-and-a-half, four weeks ago, I got hit by a car, but most of the hard work had been done by the time it happened so I've recovered well and, you know, I'll be on the start line on Saturday and nothing has changed, I will be there to win," said Doe.
In the women's race, Gina Crawford (NZ) said training had been going well and she was aiming to break the course record providing the conditions were not too windy. She said the hardest thing for her on race day would be not feeding her baby because she had previously only gone four or five hours without doing so.
Wanaka athlete and last year's runner up Simon Maier (NZ) was excited about the race and looking forward to how she compares against the rest of the field. Christie Sym (AUS) and Nicole Ward (AUS) were also looking forward to taking on the challenge.
The race which is called the most scenic iron distance triathlon in the world starts at 6.30am on Saturday at Pembroke Park, Wanaka.
For more information see www.challengewanaka.com.
