Tauranga's triathlete Nikita Coleman is amongst a team of Kiwi athletes who have been competing in Abu Dhabi at the 2022 World Triathlon Super Sprint Triathlon Championships.

The World Triathlon Championship Finals has been held at Abu Dhabi's Yas Island from November 23 – 26 2022.

The Championship Finals is regarded as the crown jewel of World Triathlon's annual calendar. The multi-day triathlon festival has welcomed thousands of local, regional and international triathletes to the UAE's capital city, and is seeing world champions crowned across both Elite, Para and Age Group race categories.

Previous hosts include London, Budapest, Beijing, Auckland, Chicago, Gold Coast, Lausanne and Edmonton, with the 2022 race planned in Abu Dhabi for the first time. With the World Triathlon Championship Series already a firm fixture in Abu Dhabi's annual sporting calendar, the winning bid for the Final further bolsters Abu Dhabi's global status in the triathlon world.

Alongside the World Championship races, the event is also hosting community races for triathletes of all ages and abilities – providing a unique opportunity for age-group triathletes to compete on the same weekend, and at the same venue as the world's best.

The NZ Triathlon team at Abu Dhabi. Photo: Supplied.

Accompanied and supported by her parents, Nikita has come seventh in the 15-19 age category.

New Zealand is well represented at the crown jewel of the World Triathlon season in both the elite and U23 races as well as the Age Group super sprint, standard distance and aquabike championships.

The focus, inevitably, is on Hayden Wilde and the Whakatane Falcon's bid to become New Zealand's first world champion since Bevan Docherty in 2004, then in a one-off ITU race.

After a two-win, two-silver medal campaign thus far, Wilde will proudly wear the No.1 bid and fight till the death to hold off Brit Alex Yee in the men's elite finale in the early hours of Sunday morning (NZT). But before the epic end to the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) season, there are is plenty to hold Kiwi attention.

Saturday November 26, 11.50pm: World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) – Men's Final
NZL athletes: Hayden Wilde, Tayler Reid
SKY SPORT: Sky Sport 9 (059), 11.50pm (November 26) – 2.20am.

For live tracking go to abudhabi.triathlon.org

The NZ Triathlon team at Abu Dhabi. Photo: Supplied.