triathlon

He claimed the title after winning at the Oceania Pacific Islands Triathlon Championships in Fiji on Sunday.

Curteis was a last-minute replacement for a team member who pulled out within days of leaving for Fiji.

Curteis attends Westlake Boys' High School in Auckland where he is a top runner for the school.

Fiji's Nikotimasi Croker and Christian Rokoua finished second and third to round up the men's podium.

In the women's race, Guam's Manaima Iijima was too good for the rest of the field showing her extensive experience at racing at a high level.

There have long been concerns over the cleanliness of the area's water, which will also host the marathon swimming events, and a para-triathlon was cancelled two years ago because of dangerous levels of E.coli detected.

The men's Olympic triathlon takes place on Monday, with the women's on Tuesday - when the storm is expected to hit.

Afoa says that it was always the intention to create a lot of activity in the early part of the year to give those who are planning for an active year, a kick start to 2017.

At the end of these mini activities there are bigger Events coming up such as the Savaii Marathon on 8th April and the international Apolima Strait 22.3km Swim on 11th April.” Said Afoa

A triathlon series race will be held on Saturday to build up hype for the internationally known warrior race in July as well as prepare local athletes for the event.

"Triathlon like all other sports require commitment and hard work, and our goal is to promote it as a sport in Samoa, as well as pushing healthy living through exercise," said President Nicola Mills.