Cross-country titles dished out as runners brave the cold
The weather experts said the South would be hit by a wintery blast over the weekend. They were right.
A hardy lot these Southlanders, not to mention a few Dunedinites and a lone Wellingtonian.
The weather experts said the South would be hit by a wintery blast over the weekend. They were right. Snow blanketed Invercargill Saturday morning and the Hokonui hills overlooking the Waimumu venue for the Southland cross-country championships had more than a sprinkling of white.
Not ideal conditions to be out in a Southland paddock in little more than your underwear, although in quite a few cases running singlet and shorts were augmented by gloves, polyprop, and beanie.
“A championship is a championship, it’s the same for all of us,” said U20 winner Kennedy Taylor before braving the elements.
James McLeay, the U18 winner, commented; “it’s a race, not a run.”
McLeay had little trouble winning his 6km race, in fact at the 6k point he was leading the entire field although the U20 and seniors still had a lap (3km) to go.
Considering the recent rain conditions underfoot were not as slippery as expected but there was enough mud to make races hard going, giving strength runners an advantage over the pure speedsters.
McLeay (St Pauls) has both and used them to good effect, hitting the front from the gun and finishing 25 sec ahead of a gallant Lucas Huia (St Pauls).
Dwight Grieve was third at 6km but headed the 9km field which still had a lap (3km) to go.
The Fiordland runner increased his lead further to win by almost 2 minutes and take the masters men title.
He was followed in by Dunedin visitor Luke Geddes (Hill City) and Fiordland teammate Sagar Khemani. Grieve and Khemani recently returned from representing New Zealand and India respectively at the world Mountain and trail running champs in Austria.
Dunedin’s Sophie Shallard was the first senior woman over 9km.
In the women’s 6km (for W18, W20 and masters women) it was won by a big margin by Kennedy Taylor (St Pauls) who took the W20 gold, with W18 winner Kimberley Iversen (Inv) next in.
In the younger grades Max McGregor and Millie McFadzien (both Gore) were the standouts, taking the 3km U16 wins while the Iversen boys, Craig Jr (U12) and Sean (U10) were the top two places in the 2km race.
Nicole Jackson (W40) was best of the masters women 6km with Debbie Telfer (W65) second home.