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40 Napier Harriers turned out on Saturday afternoon to compete the ‘Green Shield’ cross country relay. The event consisted of evenly selected teams racing over a 1.3km lap, with the team captains of each team running the lap twice.
As expected the clubs no 1 Chris Corney quickly established a lead on the first lap. Kevin Fisher looked likely to produce a minor upset by heading off Mark Speakman for second, until he became a victim of Park Island, leaving his running spike imbedded the mud at the ditch crossing. He did hang on to for third, which set his team up well for the laps to follow.
By the end of the second lap Fishers’ team mate Alana Hambleton had secured the lead for their team, but the rest of the field were in hot pursuit. Only 1 minute seperated the 8 teams, with Hogan Green, Eric Speakman and Chris Taylor produces the fastest runs.
Lap3 saw Corney’s team regain the lead, Paul McGettigan running through the field to hand over 3 seconds ahead of Kirsten Foulds, running for Fisher’s team. Speakman’s team meanwhile, had been relegated to last place. Fastest times for leg 3 were from McGettigan, Annika Edmondson and Jo Cavanagh.
Graham Edmondson, running for Fisher’s team, quickly re-established their lead while running second fastest time for the leg, while a storming run from Mark Todd garnered him fastest time and brought Speakman’s team through to third place. Ian Clark produced the third fastest time for the leg, but not far behind was Andrew Prosser, securing a second place position for his team at the last change over.
By the time Stefan Smith began lap 5, his team of Fisher, Hambleton, Foulds, and Edmondson, had the shield win all sewn up but there was still drama to unfold in the battle for second spot. Running for the team of Leo Pearce, Eric Speakman, Cavanagh, and Prosser was the experienced runner Brian Williamson. The team of Mark Speakmn, Brendan Speakman, Trish Foster, and Todd had elected to play their trump card last. Under 16 runner Kane Green has been in good form this season and he dutifully took off after Williamson. By the end of the lap it looked as though Williamson had it by about 5 meters, but he slowed before the crossing the line and in an all out do or die sprint, Green caught him on the line to have the teams declared as second equal.
A good day out and a good ‘tickle up’ before next weekend’s Provincial Cross Country Championships to be held in Gisborne.
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