Athletics: Strong finish key to Canterbury win

Sam Wreford and Kim Hogarth were the toast of the University of Canterbury club on Saturday for their part in securing back-to-back men's A grade victories in the New Zealand Road Relay Championships on Saturday, held this year on the Taieri course.

The talented University of Canterbury team was well aware of the huge task of winning the title for a second consecutive year, particularly knowing the threat posed by Pakuranaga.

"We knew Pakuranga were going to be close to us, absolutely, this year," team captain Matt Ingram said afterwards.

"We weren't sure how they'd run their runners on each individual leg. They certainly left their strongest option until last."

A reshuffle in the order of its runners by the defending champion helped to counter the threat posed by national road champion Dale Warrander running for Pakuranga on the final leg.

"Having a minute's advantage going into the last leg would have been nice. Dale's a great runner, but to have 2 was a real bonus," Ingram said.

"It was stressful right up until that last lap. But once we got to that last lap the boys enjoyed it. It was great."

Ingram is looking forward to taking his team to a "three-peat" with the home-ground advantage next year on the Takahe to Akaroa course.

An initial challenge from Dunedin's Ariki may have taken Ingram's team by surprise when Luke Hurring took the local club out to a 3sec lead, at the first change.

Richard Olsen took the defending champion into the lead on the second leg, holding out a determined challenge from Ariki's Callan Moody, Tauranga's Gareth Hyett and Pakuranga's Sam Dobson.

Ingram and Thijs Hubber maintained a 30sec advantage at the head of the field for the University of Canterbury team as Pakuranga began to feature in second place through Justin Carnaby, knowing that if his team was in touch going into the final leg, there would be little to counter the fire-power of its final-leg runner, Warrander.

Wreford began the gruelling fifth leg over Three Mile Hill and up the gravelled Flagstaff -Whare Flat Rd to the Pineapple Track car park, with his team holding a nervous 22sec lead over Pakuranga, with Ariki in touch another 10sec back in third.

The task of running up Three Mile Hill proved to be make or break for several teams and it quickly brought Tauranaga and Wellington Scottish back into contention as the first five teams narrowed their margins.

But it was Wreford, who, despite appearing under threat near the top of Three Mile Hill, was able to regain momentum on the 2km gravel stage on the run up Flagstaff-Whare Flat Rd to secure a 41sec lead over Scott Winton (Pakuranga), with Ben Ruthe bringing Tauranga into contention close behind in third.

The downhill ability of Hogarth turned the tables for University of Canterbury as he powered down Longridge Rd and through to the final change to hand Rowan Hooper a decisive 2min 30sec advantage over Pakuranga's Warrander, who made little impression on the Canterbury and Otago marathon champion as he took his team to victory on the 64.6km seven-leg course in 3hr 33min 18sec, with Pakuranga second in 3hr 35min 42sec.

A real battle unfolded for bronze, when the local Ariki club went into the final leg with its runner, international junior triathlete Tony Dodds, handed just over a minute's advantage on national cross-country representative Reese Buck (Wellington Scottish) and Manchester Commonwealth Games marathon selection Craig Kirkwood (Tauranga).

The three came together midway through the leg and the race for bronze was on.

Dodds took up the challenge posed by Buck and Kirkwood, but faded in a close finish, with Buck getting the better of a sprint finish to hand Wellington Scottish the bronze in 3hr 38min 57sec.

Tauranga was fourth across the line but was later disqualified for a technical infringement of the rules and Ariki was promoted to fourth.