Athletics: Women lead way in great day for Pakuranga club

Pakuranga club president Bob Smith was full of praise for his club after the women's A grade team retained the national relay title on Saturday.

"It's been an absolutely brilliant day," Smith said after Pakuranga won the women's title and finished second in the men's A grade, second in the junior women and third in both the junior men and the masters women's grades.

It had been a huge fundraising effort to get his teams down to Dunedin to compete and Smith said the results spoke volumes for the many others back in Auckland who had put in the hours of fundraising in order to compete.

The club is among the largest in the country, with up to 400 winter members and 500 junior members on the track during the summer months.

But it was the Pakuranga women's A grade team of Lisa Robertson, Chanel Williamson, Maria Akesson, Renee Holtam, Sarah Devoy, Leah Hirschfeld and Alice Mason who flew the club's colours high on Saturday to come from behind to retain the title it won on the Timaru course last year.

Going into the final leg, a run of 11km from Silverstream to Reid Ave in Mosgiel, Pakuranga, although in touch with pre-race favourite Auckland City Athletic, was still 2min 38sec adrift of Dunedin's Hill City which had led throughout until that stage.

But with Alice Mason, the runner-up at the New Zealand cross-country championships competing for Pakuranga, and New Zealand marathon champion and world junior duathlon representative Hanny Allston competing for Auckland City Athletic on the final leg, it was always going to be a tough task for Hill City to hold its lead.

It was Mason who quickly got the better of Allston and by midway had taken over the lead from Hill City, delivering her team victory on the 64.6km course in 4hr 15min 37sec, with Auckland City Athletic second in 4hr 17min 18sec and Hill City third in 4hr 18min 9sec.

"Alice ran a stunner," team captain Chanel Williamson said afterwards.

The bronze medal achieved by the Hill City women's team added to the growing reputation of this club in national competition.

It is the 11th medal the club has won in national road relay competition in the past 20 years.

Other local clubs to finish among the medals on Saturday were the Leith masters men's team which finished third in its grade, while Ariki won the open B grade title and finished third in the C grade.