Wyatt wins world long course mountain running championship
New Zealand's Jonathan Wyatt became the first mountain runner to win both the short distance and the long distance world mountain running titles with a win in the long distance championships in Switzerland yesterday.

Wyatt, five times world short course champion, ran the Jungfrau marathon in 2h 55m 32s, beating Hermann Achm�ller of Italy by over three minutes.
Wyatt took control of the race, which started at 585m and finished at 2110m, at the start of the hill climb, and was never challenged to the finish.

Stephen Lett of Auckland won the annual Whangamata half marathon in 1h 13m 8s, beating Hamilton's Kent Hodgson by 10 seconds.
Tracey Clissold won the women's section in 1h 21m 24s, over a minute ahead of fellow Aucklanders Melanie Burke and Sally Ward who was third in 1h 25m 38s.

Pakuranga won three titles at the Auckland road relay championships held on the roads surrounding Lloyd Elsmore Park on Saturday.
Pakuranga won the senior and master women and senior men events
Auckland City Athletic won the masters men, and the 19 grade men and women. Auckland University collected the master men over 50 relay.

Kimberley Smith close to her 3000m record
Kimberley Smith went close to her New Zealand 3000m record in finishing fourth at the Italian Rieti meeting yesterday.
Smith recorded 8m 35.92s, just 0.61s outside her national record set in Monaco in late July.

Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya won in 8m 30.25s.
At the same meeting Asafa Powell of Jamaica broke his own world 100m record, clocking 9.74s in the heats, to clip .03 off his previous time. Powell went on to win the final in 9.78s.
Smith will next race over two miles at the Memorial Van Damme meeting in Bruxelles Belgium on Friday.

Martin Lukes sixth at World 100km ultra marathon championship
Martin Lukes of Christchurch finished a creditable sixth in the World 100km ultra marathon championship in Winschoten Netherlands yesterday.
Lukes improved on his eighth placing last year with a personal best time of 6h 46m 50s.

The race was won by Shinichi Watanabe of Japan in 6h 23m 21s.
A total of 87 runners completed the race.

Valerie Vili wins in Thum Germany
Valerie Vili followed up her World Championship shot put gold medal with a throw of 19.24m in Thum Germany. In cold conditions Vili beat two German competitors for victory. In the second round Vili was out to 19.50m, but foot fouled.
Vili's next competition is in Rovereto Italy on Wednesday.