Source: University of Otago
Hannah Maher gives her all while competing in the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships in Ibiza, Spain.
After injuries and illness, Otago medical student Hannah Maher felt just making it to the starting line of the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships in Spain was a dream come true.
To discover hours later that she had won her category (female, 25-29 years) was hard to believe.
“Training and racing with such a big New Zealand team was a really awesome experience, everyone was super helpful and nice. And then getting to put on the silver fern and race with your mates was so special and something I will always cherish.”
She completed the long distance triathlon – a 3km swim, 116km bike ride and 30km run – in six hours, 49 minutes and 29 seconds.
For Maher, a trainee intern based in Christchurch, attending the May champs was a particularly special moment as a decade before, a rib fracture meant she was forced to withdraw from the junior world championships in rowing.
Growing up in a farming family in rural Rangitikei in the North Island, Maher loved sports from a young age and “played just about anything and everything”. She ran competitively before sustaining a knee injury and was then introduced to rowing.
Missing out on the rowing championships was the catalyst for her to go to Dunedin in 2012 to study health sciences. After obtaining a place in both medicine and dentistry, she decided to pursue dentistry and after graduating, worked at Waikato Hospital for three years. In her third year, she was working as a non-training oral and maxillofacial registrar.
“I absolutely loved being in the hospital setting, working as part of a multi-disciplinary team and operating. This made me reconsider a career in medicine.”
Maher was accepted to the Otago Medical School via the alternative pathway after sitting her Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons examinations and publishing research and made the move to Christchurch in 2021 as a fourth-year medical student.
“Making the decision to go to medical school wasn’t an easy one but this time, being a little bit older and wiser, I realised the importance of doing a job that you are passionate about. For me this is medicine.”
Returning to study, she found she had more time than when she was working so she bought a bike and floated the idea of doing a triathlon.
Hannah Maher celebrates her success on the podium.
Maher describes herself as “a bit of a rookie”, given her first race was a Half Ironman Triathlon in Rotorua in December 2022. She says the best thing about the sport is the people, who form a tightknit community which supported and encouraged her right up to last month’s world champs. She’s also lucky to have a very supportive family and friends.
Maher plans to continue to compete, saying training is a good way to deal with the stress of medicine.
“I feel nothing clears your head quite so well as a run after a tough day at work. The inability to think about much while training is hugely beneficial to me, it’s almost my form of meditation.”
Building on her dentistry training, she hopes to become an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, although this is a very competitive pathway. However, she has time and options, and overall is focused on making the most of every opportunity.
“I genuinely love being busy so what others see as slightly crazy, is for me my idea of living and living fully.”
– Kōrero by Andrea Jones, Team Leader, Divisional Communications
