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The Napier Harrier Club took to the fields of Park Island on Saturday for the running of their Green Shield Relay. The relay was first run in 1941 and has been held annually ever since, with many of the clubs top runners at some time having been part of the winning team.
This year the weather put the dampener on the event to a certain extent with just 28 athletes braving the cold. Team Captains were appointed and teams of 4 selected. The course was a 1500m lap of the playing fields with the first and last runners to complete 2 laps each and the second and third runners completing just one each.
Chris Corney got his team of to a flying start, handing a 40 second lead to Jay Green, with Brent Jones second in and Shane McCormack just 6 seconds behind in third. Jo Cavanagh brought her team home in 5th place some 2 minutes 15 seconds behind Corney, but it was a run which was to prove very important as the event unfolded. Stefan Smith, the only Junior to run the first leg brought his team through for fourth place.
The second leg saw Rory Diver, running on from McCormack, take the lead by a very 2 seconds from Hogan Green who had carried the baton for Jones' team. Jay Green had taken on from Corney and did well to hang on to third spot while Bronwyn Farquharson and Alanna Hambleton held fourth and fifth for the teams of Smith and Cavanagh respectively.
By the end of the third leg, Corney's team was back to the lead thanks to an excellent run form Under 14 Andre Smith. Alan Giles, running for McCormack's team, crossed just three seconds later to hand on to Eric Phimister. Laura Smidt produced the fastest lap of the runners on this leg to take Stefan Smith's team through to third spot, while Stu McKie edged Cavanagh's team a little closer to the action, still in fifth but now just 1:08 behind the front runners.
The final leg was another 2 lapper and it proved quite an exciting finish. Two of the clubs current rivals John Craven and Eric Phimister ended up going head to head, with Phimister anchoring McCormack's team and Craven bring home Stefan Smith's team. Phimister ended up having the edge, beating Craven's time by just 5 seconds, but it was the final leg run of John Hambleton, which really paid dividends. He ran the third fastest time of the two lappers to take his team from fifth at the start of the leg, right through to the lead, catching and passing Phimister just 500m from the line and finishing 7 seconds ahead. Craven in the meantime was having a battle royal with race-walker Paul McGettigan. McGettigan was fresh from an unofficial victory at the Gold Coast Half Marathon last Sunday and was running the final leg for Corney's team. At the line Craven had the advantage by just 1 second to claim third spot for Stefan Smith's team.
Fastest times for the two lapper were recorded by Corney (10:15) who was ecstatic to have finally beaten the two vets, Darryl Strachan (10:16) and Hambleton (10:35) while Rory Diver (5:35) took the honours for the one lappers from Hogan Green (5:43) and Laura Smidt (5:51)
report Mark Speakman
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