Robert Jopp (Hill City) took off like a frightened rabbit,
got ahead of the bunch and stayed there to won the 21st
annual Time Buster around the Octagon, in Dunedin, on
Saturday.
Jopp (16), third last year, won in a time of 33.93sec. Blair
Grant (Taieri) was second in 34.52sec and last year's winner,
Ben Jowsey (Hill City), was third in 35.13sec.
The women's winner was New Zealand secondary schools
representative Sophie Napper (Taieri), who was competing in
the event for the first time.
She won in 38.86sec from Jasmine Ng (40.32sec) and Danielle
Geldeman (40.87sec).
The 243m street race starts outside the New Zealand Shop when
the Dunedin Town Hall clock strikes the first of its 10
strokes at 10am. The aim is to reach the finish before the
clock strikes 10.
Jopp was first to the top of the hill by the Robbie Burns
statue and was able to get the inside running down the hill
to the Regent Theatre and control the race.
"I could hear footsteps behind me and I knew the others were
close," Jopp said.
He hurtled down the slope and had a 10m lead as they passed
the Regent and headed for home.
He was confident at this stage but knew he still had some
hard work to do. There is so much force going through a
sprinter's legs on the downhill that it is difficult to stay
tall and keep running form after that.
"The bottom was the hardest part of the race for me," he
said.
He desperately moved up the slope to the finish but was 4m
short of his target as the Town Hall clock struck 10 and
failed by less than half a second to collect the bonus
payment of $250 to add to his winner's purse of $300.
Grant (17), a Waitaki Boys' High School pupil who finished
fourth in the race last year, lost some ground going down the
slope when he almost tripped over a track marker.
Napper (18) made her first target when she reached the top of
the hill first in the women's race.
"The hardest part for me was just after the top, when I had
to get used to running down the slope," she said.
Napper finished strongly up the slope and was 1.46sec ahead
of Ng, who was the surprise packet of the race.
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