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The Napier Harrier Club held their club Road Racing Championships at Westshore on Saturday afternoon, and there were two rather unusual results.
The first was in the first race of the day where the Christison siblings, Shamus, Bradley and Thomas, took out the trifecta. Racing over 2.4km Shamus was first home in 9:30 with Bradley 11 seconds back in second, and Thomas filling the podium 12 seconds later.
The other notable result came in the last race of the day where, in an extremely unusual circumstance, James Bell finished first and second in the combined Senior and Masters Men's 10km race. James Bell, top local mutlisport age group racer turned up as part of his build up to the World Long Distance Age Group Champs in Perth in 4 weeks time and showed good form, only beaten to the line by Napier Harriers top senior James Bell. Third across the line and provisionally taking the Masters Men's title was Cliff Fellingham, although his late arrival may result in disqualification and the promotion of Eric Phimister to the title position.
The Girls 12 race resulted in a clear cut win for Georgia Creagh. Creagh ran 9:51 for the title with Jinny Lee a distant second. Not to be outdone, Creagh's elder sister Annie cleaned up the Girls 14 5km race by a whopping 3:38 from an under-performing Sophie Rose, with Jasmin Ngan-Sue picking up third. Annie Creagh's 20:44 was also ahead of Jess Middleton, who won the Girls 16 title uncontested in 21:52 for her 5km.
Their was more sibling rivalry in the men's 5km event where the Speakman brothers were racing each other. Although racing in different grades, they both started at the same time and Eric, who recently won the silver at the National Road Champs, was out to set a fast time in his last outing in the M19 grade. Brendan, the younger brother, was after the B16 title and hoping to run within 2 minutes of his brother. Brendan managed both, running a very respectable 17:42 to win the grade by just under a minute from Jake Tully and 1:52 slower than Eric, who ran a solo 15:50 to win his M19 title uncontested. Kaden Hall picked up the bronze in the B16 grade.
The boys 14 grade was comfortably won by Toa Elphick-Iaveta, whose 18:04 5km was well ahead of Jack Smidt and Jason Pearson who were second and third respectively.
Rochelle Bryant's 20:24 run to win the W19 title showed promising signs of for the upcoming track season. Her victory showing good endurance for a 400m runner.
Annie Kane's 20:56 victory in the Masters Women's race was just enough to hold out Senior Women's winner Annika Edmondson (21:00). Edmondson is also going to the World Long Distance Age Group Champs in Perth, and her win shows she is also in good shape. She was pushed by second placed Keiko Hashiba right through to the final kilometer before her strength took her through to a comfortable 40 second win. Kim Creagh ran a personal best 24:01 to just pip Gina Finlayson (24:05) for second in the Masters Women. Shayna Heywood was third in the Senior Women's.
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