Athletics New Zealand Media Release - Weekly Roundup

BIRMINGHAM UK – 11 October 2009
World Half Marathon Championship
Kimberley Smith finished an outstanding seventh in the world half marathon championship in Birmingham UK on Sunday.
Smith set a New Zealand national record of 1h 9m 35s, exactly one minute quicker than Nina Rillstone’s record set in New York in August 2007.
The overseas based runner from Papakura was the first non-African to finish and was just 2m 59s behind the winner Mary Jepkosgei Keitany of Kenya.
Smith was 10th at 5km in 15m 57s, 11th at 10km in 32m 39s (16m 42s), 8th at 15km in 49m 13s (16m 34s) and 7th at 20km in 1h 5m 46s (16m 33s).
Keitany ran 1h 6m 36s, just 11 seconds outside Lornah Kiplagat’s of Netherlands world record.
The Oceania record is 1h 7m 48s set by Australian Kerryn McCann in Tokyo in 2000.
Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea won the men’s world title in 59m 35s from Benard Kiprop Kipyego of Kenya 59m 59s and Dathan Ritzenhein of USA who ran exactly one hour.

MELBOURNE – 11 October 2009
Melbourne Marathon
Melissa Norris finished 10th overall woman and second in the 40-44 age group in 2h 54m 57s after passing half way in 1h 28m 20s.
Sally Anderson was 16th and 5th 40-44 in 3h 3m 21s and Helen Anderson was 34th and 9th 40-44 in 3h 14m 34s.

SOLL, AUSTRIA – 9, 10, 11 October 2009
Tour de Tirol, World Long Distance Challenge, 10km, 42.2km, 21.1km.
Jonathan Wyatt finished second in the three day mountain running challenge with a total time of 4h 55m 14.6s for the three races. Wyatt was fifth overall in the 10km on day one in 33m 38.3s, second in the marathon on day two in 3h 12m 5.4s and fourth in the half marathon on day three in 1h 9m 30.8s.
Raymond Kemboi Chemungor of Kenya won with 4h 53m 58s made up of a 32m 1.4s 10km, 3h 14m 51.5s marathon and a 1h 7m 5.0s half marathon.
In 2006 Wyatt was third, he won in 2007 in 4h 42m 34s and also won last year in 4h 51m 23s.
Anna Frost was third in the women’s marathon in 3h 33m 20.9s.

KONA HAWAII – 10 October 2009
Ironman World Championship
Craig Kirkwood of Tauranga Ramblers was 218th and 39th in the 35-39 age group in 9h 51m 33s. His marathon was 3h 20m 21s.

MASTERTON – 11 October 2009
Wairarapa Marathon and Half Marathon
Rohan Biggs won the marathon in 2h 43m 49s from Graeme Butcher 2h 54m 55s. Heidi-Jane Humphries was first in the women in 3h 39m 33s. Tony Price won the half marathon in 1h 17m 54s with Wendy Teahan first in the women with 1h 27m 51s.

CHRISTCHURCH – 10 October 2009
New Zealand Road Relay Championships – Takahe to Akaroa.
Canterbury University scored a notable double winning the senior men and senior women titles at the New Zealand road relay championships, in bitterly cold conditions, at Akaroa on Saturday.
Phil Costley shot the men out to a 23 second lead on the first lap from the Cashmere Hills to Allandale and by half way they had a 2m 16s advantage after Luke Hurring, brought in to replace an injured Sam Wreford, headed in Matt Dravitzki from Wellington Scottish. Matt Smith and Gus Taylor further consolidated Varsity’s lead allowing Andrew Davidson a clear run to the finish at Akaroa Domain in 4h 4m 37s for the 76.6km. It was the third year in a row for the men.
Davidson said that they weren’t too concerned after Wreford withdrew.
“When we can pull in a guy who has run 14m 5s for 5km as your reserve runner, it shows the sort of depth we’ve got. Luke’s in good enough shape, he’s had some injury problems but he’s been training – we knew we could rely on him,” said Davidson.
“The only anxious moment we had was with Phil’s (Costley) partner who is very pregnant and something might have happened last night, fortunately for us he could start. He’s a guy you can always rely on, he’s been there and done that for the last 20 years at least,” added Davidson.
The national cross country champion said that he had a good final lap run.
“It was good to know that we had a fair buffer. We were quite keen to break our club record for the course, but we were about 20 seconds off that today,” he added.
Wellington Scottish was second in 4h 13m 52s, followed by Pakuranga and New Brighton. Jason Woolhouse, across from Australia, was outstanding for New Brighton on the second lap with the fastest time honours of 32m 9s for the 10.4km. Kees Keizer of Scottish was the fastest on the downhill lap into Duvauchelle running 28m 7s for the 9.5km.
Takapuna won the men’s B grade with Hutt Valley taking out the men’s C grade.
Lake City Rotorua made it two years in a row in the master men while Tasman Tigers, who last won in 2004, collected the masters men over 50 title.
The Canterbury University women also led throughout after a solid run by Lara Phillips over the first lap.
Team captain Fiona Crombie was outstanding clipping two seconds off Sue Bruce’s 1985 lap five record with a time of 37m 20s for the 10.7km.
Crombie said it was a more convincing victory, in 4h 55m 51s, over Pakuranga than they had expected.
“We didn’t think it was going to be that bigger win, we thought it would be a lot tighter. I think a few team changes by the opposition made it a bit easier for us, we had our original strong team,” said Crombie.
Pakuranga, winners for the last two years, were without Nina Rillstone and Hannah Barker, and were just over nine minutes back in second. Wellington Harriers were third.
Crombie said it was a great day for the club winning both senior relays.
“A fantastic day, it’s really exciting, I think it’s great that it’s on home ground on such a course that has just such a good history to it,” she said.
Hamilton City Hawks won the master women’s relay by a wide margin of 21 minutes over Leith and Pakuranga. Bridget Ray, Andrea Thomas, Marion Millward and Anne Bradley from the Hawks team all ran the fastest time on their particular lap. Melissa Moon running for Wellington Scottish was the fastest master on the final lap of 9.9km in 39m 51s. Moon holds the record at 36m 34s set in 2005.
Auckland City Athletic made it a double, in race record times, in the junior men and women and women relays.
The men reduced the record held by Takapuna since 1997 by 1m 9s and the women carved 6m 52s off Wellington Harriers 2005 record. Auckland City runners Julian Harris in the men and Ashleigh Williams, Sally Wilkins and Georgie Grgec in the women all set lap records.
Coach of the Auckland City Club Olympic Games bronze medallist Barry Magee said that it was a team effort in both races.
“Don Macfarquhar did a wonderful job on putting together the teams in the right order in the right place. Every runner was on their right lap and it was just a combined team effort, where there were no weak links and that was the key to it,” said Magee.
Hamilton City Hawks won the overall team award on points.

RESULTS
Men.-
Senior 76.6km: Canterbury University (Phil Costley, Rowan Hooper, Brett Tingay, Luke Hurring, Matt Smith, Richard Olsen, Angus Taylor, Andrew Davidson) 4h 4m 37s 1, Wellington Scottish 4h 13m 52s 2, Pakuranga 4h 16m 36s 3, New Brighton 4h 20m 15s 4, Ariki 4h 21m 0s 5, Wesley 4h 21m 27s 6.
Fastest laps: Lap 1 9.6km Costley 29m 48s, 2 10.4km Jason Woolhouse (NB) 32m 9s, 3 10.0km Tingay 32m 26s, 4 9.4km Hurring 29m 41s, 5 10.7km Smith 32m 9s, 6 6.8km Olsen 25m 50s, 7 9.5km Kees Keizer (Scott) 28m 7s, 8 9.9km Davidson 32m 7s.
Senior B Grade: Takapuna 4h 22m 4s 1, Wellington Scottish 4h 24m 23s 2, Canterbury University 4h 30m 6s 3.
Senior C Grade: Hutt Valley 4h 52m 22s 1, Napier Harriers 5h 2m 5s 2, Leith 5h 4m 15s 3.
Masters 76.6km: Lake City Rotorua (Bruce Edwards, Lawrence Oldershaw, David Cronshaw, Tony Broadhead, Chris Corney, Graeme Pearson, Duncan Smith, Colin Earwaker) 4h 36m 7s 1, Papanui TocH 4h 36m 30s 2, Hamilton City Hawks 4h 37m 27s 3.
Fastest laps: Lap1 Kerry Faass (NB) 32m 26s, 2 Richard Bennett (PTocH) 34m 7s, 3 John Crane (HCH) 35m 15s, 4 Broadhead 33m 58s, 5 Michael Pugh (Tau) 32m 56s (record), 6 Grant McLean (Scott) 27m 43s, 7 Mike Wakelin (HC) 28m 32s, 8 Glen Ferguson (Leith) 34m 59s.
Masters over 50 76.6km: Tasman Tigers (Tim Cross, Murray Hart, Michael Morrissey, Bill Revell, Kelvin Read, Kevin Ellis, Derek Shaw, Patrick Meffan) 5h 0m 1, Olympic 5h 5m 42s 2, Auckland University 5h 6m 28s 3.
Fastest laps: Lap 1 Cross 35m 52s, 2 Graham Macky (Ak Univ) 39m 36s, 3 Brian Pascoe (Leith) 39m 0s, 4 Daniel Reese (Cant Univ) 35m 22s, 5 Paul Sharp (Wgtn) 39m 8s, 6 Paul Forster (Wgtn) 30m 46s, 7 Alec Hobbs (Olym) 33m 21s, 8 Colin Earwaker (LC) 35m 51s.
Junior 40.7km: Auckland City Athletic (Sam Morreau, Michael Banks, Tadele Tekle-Haimanot, Jono Jackson, Tom Stewart, Julian Harris) 2h 12m 14s (record) 1, Scottish 2h 14m 17s 2, Athletics Nelson 2h 14m 34s 3.
Fastest laps: Lap 1 4.8km Jordan Williamsz (Haileybury Aust) 15m 2s (record), 2 5.6km Banks 18m 51s, 3 10.0km Aaron Pulford (Ham) 31m 54s, 4 9.4km Jackson 30m 8s, 5 6.5km Ewoud Noordeloos (Nelson) 20m 38s (record), 6 4.1km Harris 12m 48s (record).
Women.-
Senior 76.6km: Canterbury University (Lara Phillips, Kellie Palmer, Alex Williams, Alicia Evans, Fiona Crombie, Aine Hoban, Sarah McSweeney, Nicki McFadzien) 4h 55m 51s 1, Pakuranga 5h 5m 10s 2, Wellington Harriers 5h 6m 10s 3, Wellington Scottish 5h 28m 39s 4, Tauranga Ramblers 5h 31m 8s 5, Otago University 5h 35m 2s 6.
Fastest laps: Lap 1 Lisa Robertson (Pak) 35m 45s, 2 Jess Ruthe (Tau) 39m 6s, 3 Williams 39m 13s, 4 Sarah Gardner (Wgtn) 37m 1s, 5 Crombie 37m 30s (record), 6 Sarah Devoy (Pak) 32m 8s, 7 McSweeney 33m 6s, 8 Alice Mason 36m 33s.
Masters 76.6km: Hamilton City Hawks (Bridget Ray, Kristen Milne, Tracey Greenwood, Andrea Thomas, Kate Taylor, Marion Millward, Anne Bradley, Bridget Deverell) 5h 18m 58s 1, Leith 5h 40m 10s 2, Pakuranga 5h 42m 3s 3.
Fastest laps: Lap 1 Ray 38m 54s, 2 Rachel Penny (Pak) 42m 25s, 3 Petra Creighton (Tau) 41m 43s, 4 Thomas 39m 33s, 5 Gabrielle O’Rourke (Wgtn) 39m 48s, 6 Millward 33m 46s, 7 Bradley 35m 23s, 8 Melissa Moon (Scott) 39m 51s.
Junior 40.7km: Auckland City Athletic (Ashleigh Williams, Esther Keown, Lydia O’Donnell, Breeanna Potter, Sally Wilkins, Georgie Grgec) 2h 36m 11s (record) 1, Hamilton City Hawks 2h 44m 16s 2, Pakuranga 2h 46m 45s 3.
Fastest laps: Lap 1 Williams 19m 1s (record), 2 Keown 22m 31s, 3 O’Donnell 39m 38s, 4 Mikayla Neilson (Ham) 35m 5s, 5 Wilkins 24m 54s (record), 6 Grgec 14m 45s (record).
Top Club on points: Hamilton City Hawks.

INVERCARGILL – 10 October 2009
The Southland track and field season started with a NZ masters M50 shot put record of 13.33m set by Mark Flaus. William Hubber, set a Southland M19 shot put record of 14.23m. Glen Ballam highlighted the track with a 1m 25.8s clocking over 600m. Matt Robinson won the M19 60m in 7.11s and the 300m in 35.61s. Shaun Burgess M19 won the 2000m in 6m 11.56s.

BRUCE McCOMB’S RUN FROM CAPE REINGA TO BLUFF ALMOST COMPLETE
Report from Don Willoughby
The 68 year old Cambridge Harrier club's Bruce McComb is now on the penultimate lap of his long challenge having ground to a halt yesterday in the face of bitterly cold SW winds which swept across the Southland Plains and were so severe that after a 25kms battle he pulled the plug on the day's running. George too found the wind a challenge as he drove the caravan south. They overnighted just south of Mataura and with 50km to today's goal Invercargill in two runs that leaves Bruce about 30km to do on Tuesday to achieve that wonderful feat of running from Cape Reinga to Bluff in 46 days. Bruce has been able to sneak a few extra kms each day on top of his planned 50kms as he has been feeling great and the feet are still in good shape. What a machine! Janet flies to Invercargill today and has the champagne and finish tape ready for the Bluff sign post finale around mid day tomorrow. Janet has booked a weeks R and R at Noosa and then a trip to Europe with a canal boat cruise south from Amsterdam await Bruce in the next few months when running will definitely take a back seat.