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Bays Cougars regained the New Zealand senior men's road relay title, defeating defending champions Wellington Scottish, while Scottish retained the women's title.
The Scottish women had a battle with Wellington Harriers throughout the eight laps 77km event from the Sign of the Takahe to Akaroa.
Scottish had built up a commanding lead going into the last lap, after a crushing run from 2004 New Zealand road champion Katie Urquhart, and Melissa Moon carried the honours, holding out Wellington Harriers' Kate McIlroy. McIlroy cut out the final lap of 9.9km in 34m 16s, Moon running 36m 34s.
Scottish received a good start from Rees Buck who raced into a 35 second lead over Dougal Thorburn of Papanui Toc H. Bays Ben Ruthe after a solid up hill climb over the Cashmere Hills cruised down the hill to Allandale finishing nearly two minutes back in eighth place.
Sub four minute miler Tom Mayo was outstanding over the next lap to bring Bays up to 16 seconds behind Scottish.
Robbie Johnston had Bays ahead after the next stage into Kaituna. Scottish's Ben Revell made up ground to Lake Forsyth coming in just 27 seconds behind Bays Clyde Rosanowski.
Adrian Blincoe back in New Zealand for a brief stay, sailed through on the long 11.1km stage. With a strong tail wind the world athletic representative put up a solid performance to give Bays a margin of two and half minutes.
Grant McLean clawed back 20 seconds for Scottish, over Jason Cameron for Bays on the uphill slog to Hilltop. Joe Piggin claimed the 20 seconds back on the downhill scramble handing over the winning baton to Dale Warrander. Still feeling the effects of his outstanding sixth place in last Sunday's world mountain running championships, Warrander was at home on the hills in the run from Duvauchelle to Akaroa, extending Bays winning margin to 4m 38s.
"The legs were tired and sore, and I was tired up the hills. It was a good team effort. After a scratchy start we came through in the end," said Warrander.
Auckland University made it six years in a row in the masters men, Olympic of Christchurch won the over 50 title, while Summer retained their masters women title.
The junior titles went to Wesley of Auckland in the men and Wellington Harriers in the women.
Results:
Senior men 77km: Bays Cougars (Ben Ruthe, Tom Mayo, Robbie Johnston, Clyde Rosanowski, Adrian Blincoe, Jason Cameron, Joe Piggin, Dale Warrander) 4h 6m 40s 1, Wellington Scottish 4h 11m 18s 2, Papanui Toc H 4h 17m 46s 3, Ariki 4h 21m 8s 4, New Brighton 4h 22m 21s 5, Pakuranga 4h 24m 24s 6.
B Grade: Sumner 4h 32m 24s 1, Tauranga Ramblers 4h 36m 37s 2, Otago University 4h 38m 19s 3.
C Grade: Olympic 5h 0m 5s 1, New Brighton 5h 3m 18s 2, Wesley 5h 5m 5s 3.
Senior women 77km: Wellington Scottish (Anne Hare, Sally Anderson, Helen Anderson, Alice Wilson, Bernie Portenski, Katie Urquhart, Suzanne Cookson, Melissa Moon) 4h 53m 5s 1, Wellington Harriers 4h 54m 36s 2, Hill City 5h 0m 32s 3, Hamilton Hawks 5h 23m 7s 4, Wellington Scottish 5h 32m 43s 5, Auckland City Athletic 5h 36m 11s 6.
Masters men 77km: 40-49; Auckland University (Ken Moloney, Ian Richards, Steve Wright, Phil Taylor, Kerry Rodger, John Fraser, Dave Harkness, Gavin Stevens) 4h 30m 15s 1, Papanui Toc H 4h 36m 17s 2, Tasman Tigers 4h 39m 21s 3. 50 plus: Olympic Christchurch (Denis Christmas, Dave Askin, Ron McTaggart, Stewart Tayler, Peter Larkin, Chris Cox, Tony Good, Tony McManus) 4h 48m 54s 1, Auckland University 4h 51m 16s 2, Tasman Tigers 5h 3m 36s 3.
Masters women 77km: Southern Stars (Rose Wilson, Kathleen Johnstone, Alison Timpany, Sandra Russell, Debbie Telfer, Jenny Adamson, Rose Heyrick, Leeanne Durry) 5h 41m 49s 1, Port Hills Athletic 5h 45m 29s 2, Leith 6h 0m 47s 3.
Junior men 41km: Wesley (Andrew Curtayne, William Curtayne, Andrew Haigh, Simon Bucknell, Malcolm Hicks, Biruk Belachew) 2h 13m 42s 1, Wellington Scottish 2h 15m 8s 2, Auckland City Athletic 2h 16m 36s 3.
Junior women 41km: Wellington Harriers (Marianna Alletson, Claire Corbett, Alice Mason, Melanie Clelaqnd, Hayley Green, Rachel Blacklaws) 2h 43m 3s 1, North Canterbury 2h 44m 3s 2, Hamilton Hawks 2h 45m 6s 3.
source Athletics New Zealand |
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