| Despite the weather, an enthusiastic group of Napier Harriers turned out on Saturday for race 2 in the club's winter season. A large field of 56 athletes braved the cold wet conditions to take part in the 'Green Shield' cross country relay. Raced over a 2k lap at Puketapu, the teams of 4 were selected evenly with the first and last runners taking on 2 laps and the second and third doing only 1.
The racing was hard right from the gun with a small group of Kevin Fisher, Craig Mathers and John Hambleton setting the pace in the early stages. However at the top of the first hill both Mathers and Hambleton had dropped off and Mark Speakman had come through to challenger Fisher for the lead. The pair raced side by side through to the end of the first lap but Fisher (14:45), in his first year running in the Senior Men's ranks, had eventually pulled away by the end of the second lap to head Speakman (14:59) for fastest leg time by 14secs. Mathers just pipped Hambleton for third although both were credited with the same time at 15:21.
Fisher's team of Andre Smith, Ian Clark, and Alan Simpson was not headed for the rest of the race with Smith (9:56) running a strong second leg to record second fastest time behind Melissa Foster (9:30) and ahead of Hogan Green (10:11), while Clark's 9:49 was good enough for 5th fastest on the third leg. Simpson's final leg of 18:09 placed him third fastest on the day and cemented the win for his team over a fast finishing Anika Edmundson.
Melissa Foster's run on the second lap brought her team through from a solid seventh fastest run by Fraser Marett (15:59) on leg 1, to second place, where they were to remain despite the efforts of her team-mates, Kristy and Anika Edmundson. Kristy's third lap run of 9:05 was the fastest of the day while sister Anika (18:13) once again performed with destinction to finish with 5th fastest time on the last lap.
The third placed team on the day got off to a bad start with veteran Brent Salisbury accidentally putting on his road racing flats in stead of his cross country spikes! This made for a disastrous start for the team as Salisbury (17:14) really struggled for traction in the slippery conditions. However, his team mates did their best to recover with Hogan Green (10:11) clocking the third fastest time on lap 2, whith Jamie Fisher (9:23) duplicating his team-mates effort on lap 3, behind Edmundson and Nellie Graham (9:14). Arthur Corbett (17:49), showing the benefits of some solid Rotorua Marathon training recorded fastest time on the final leg ahead of Wayne Turner (17:51) and Simpson(18:09), to see the team through to the their third place finish.
There were 14 teams in all and despite the weather, and a few spills in the slippery conditions, everyone enjoyed a good days racing.
report Mark Speakman
|
