Dunedin doctor Dougal Thorburn (Ariki) warmed up for next weekend's Otago Peninsula Challenge by running from the front in the 3000m at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday.
The strong southerly wind made conditions difficult and a fast time impossible.
His winning time of 8min 43sec was encouraging in the circumstances.
Thorburn (29) will be defending his title in the 23km race from Allans beach over the picturesque Otago Peninsula.
He won last year in the record time of 1hr 29min 04sec.
The other highlight in the event came from Rebekah Greene (Hill City), who ran with the bunch before sprinting away over the last 800m to finish in second place, 40m ahead of the bunch of male runners.
She completed the last two laps in 2min 38sec to finish with a time of 10min 01.90sec.
The other highlight went to Dean Rusbatch (Taieri) when he won the men's aged 15 and 16 hammer throw with a personal best 50.67m.
His distance was an impressive 2.55m ahead of his previous best throw and ranks him second on the national ranking list for his age group this season.
He beat his old mark with three of his six throws.
His sequence was: foul, 50.67m, 49.37m, 48.43m, 47.46m, foul.
Rusbatch (16), a pupil at Otago Boys' High School, won a silver medal in the senior boys hammer throw at the New Zealand secondary schools championships at Hastings in December.
He is coached by Howden Finnie.
Rusbatch also won the discus in his age group with a throw of 42.02m that lifted him from 11th to sixth on the national ranking list.
Althea Mackie (North Harbour Bays Cougars) took a trip to Dunedin on Auckland's Anniversary weekend and won the masters women's discus with 21.52m and the senior women's hammer throw with 34.30m.
Daniel Balchin (Caversham) won the men's 800m in the smart time of 1min 56.76sec given the difficult conditions.
