Athletics: Otago ends 53-year wait for men's team title

A team talk before the race reaped rewards when the Otago senior men's cross-country team won the national title for the first time since 1958, at the Halswell Quarry, in Christchurch, on Saturday.

Despite a handful of bronze medals in the past 53 years, Dougal Thorburn was prompted to talk to his team members before the race, deciding Otago's history in the event needed to change.

Auckland was hot favourite, Wellington was always going to be strong and Canterbury was in its own backyard, but Thorburn, determined to motivate the team and instil confidence, gathered Callan Moody, Bevan Stevens, Daniel Balchin, Peter Meffan and Tony Payne around and spoke of not competing as a one-man wolf pack, to run as a team for each other, and to get involved.

"Before that, I don't think we rated our chances," Payne said after the race on Saturday.

"Dougal said 'we can do this'."

The team members were unanimous in their praise of Thorburn's words before the start.

"We're just a team of good solid runners," Stevens said of the team which did not contain any nationally ranked runners

"But, man, this is awesome. I'm absolutely stoked."

The race was a slow, tactical affair over the first 4km until 2007 Moro half-marathon champion Matt Smith (Canterbury), along with Thorburn, opened it up and quickly spread the field. The two held the lead over the next 4km until race favourite, North Island champion Stephen Lett (Auckland) challenged, along with 2009 champion Andrew Davidson (Canterbury).

As the pace went on, Thorburn began to drift, feeling the pressure coming off a busy couple of weeks since winning the Otago title. He soon found Moody and Stevens on his shoulder.

Smith had taken command up front and held out strong challenges from Lett and Davidson to win the title in 37min 47sec, with Lett 5sec back in second and Davidson third in 38min 5sec.

Moody was the first Otago runner to finish the 12km course, in eighth place, with Stevens ninth, Thorburn 11th, Balchin 18th, Meffan 19th and Payne 23rd. The team finished on 88 points, equal with Auckland, but Otago won on countback as Otago's sixth runner (Payne) finished 10 places ahead of the sixth Auckland competitor. Wellington was third on 90 points and Canterbury fourth on 94.

"I've never heard so much applause in my life," Stevens said.

"There was just such a loud cheer and so much applause. It was unbelievable."

The team members were presented their medals by Athletics New Zealand executives Ron Cain and Allan Potts, who were members of the successful 1958 Otago team, along with Cliff Donaldson, Tom Marshall, Ian Martin, Graham Smith and Alister Murray.

First-year senior Danielle Trevis (Auckland) added to her national road and 10,000m titles to claim the senior women's title on the 8km course in 28min 20sec. Nicki McFadzien (Canterbury) was second in 28min 52sec and Caroline Mellson (Wellington) third in 29min 45sec.

But while Otago has suffered a bit of a fall from grace in the senior women's grade, the masters grade proved a force yet again, with Dalise Sanderson winning a competitive women's 55-60 grade in 29min 1sec, Maria Sleeman second in the women's 50-54 in 25min 36sec and Louisa Andrew third in the women's 35-39 grade in 23min 29sec.

Otago men were also running hot in the masters grade, with a silver medal in the team section, splitting a strong Canterbury team and Wellington.

Ray Knox carried over his top form from the Otago championship finishing third in the men's 50-54 section in 30min 10sec, Alan Nicholls second and Peter Clark third in the men's 55-59 group. Nicholls recorded 30min 56sec and Clark 31min 24sec.