A New Brighton Olympic team laden with past Otago talent proved it is more than worthy as the national road relay champion with a resounding victory in the Lovelock Relay at the University Oval on Saturday.
The team of Callan Moody, Nick Rennie, Oska Inkster Baynes, Dave Ridley, Matt Gibbons and Daniel Balchin put the result beyond doubt right from the start, through Moody clocking the fastest 1500m time of the day, 4min 2sec, on the soft surface to open up an 8sec lead.
With four of the six-member New Brighton Olympic team past Otago champions, it spoke volumes for their desire to return to their athletic roots and support the historic 77-year-old event honouring the gold-medal run by another of Otago's favourite athletic sons, Jack Lovelock, at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.
For New Brighton Olympic team captain Gibbons, it was a more relaxed way of preparing for his 1500m leg on Saturday.
While a member of the University of Otago Club, he had little time to prepare for his turn to run, as he was caught up in organising duties as the outgoing secretary for the club that has now merged with Hill City.
Gibbons spoke after the team victory of the impact Moody and Balchin, along with Inkster Baynes, have had on strengthening the club's ranks.
All six members of Saturday's team will form the nucleus of another eight-man team set to defend the national road relay title in October. But their spots are not fully assured, as fighting for the remaining two places in the team are at least another 10 members of the club.
''We are all living up in Christchurch now and thought it to be cool to come down and support the event. Dan [Balchin] and Callan [Moody], wanted to have a crack at doing a sub-4 in the event, because I don't think that it's been done for about 20-odd years,'' Gibbons said.
''So we thought we'd all come down and just have a hit out''Unfortunately for Moody and Balchin, the recent wet spells put paid to a fast track and while the ground was still in excellent condition, it was not conducive to sub-4min times.
Gibbon has made no secret of a team from New Brighton Olympic making a possible return to defend the title next year.
''We'll just wait to see what happens.
''It's such a great run event. Sure we'll definitely look to come back next year.''
But while New Brighton Olympic ran away with the title in a smart 25min 27sec, to send it north for the first time since Canterbury University secured back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007, a resurgent Hill City-University team secured second place.
The runs of Joe Beamish and Josh Baanin in the middle stages, complimented by the ability of Kirk Madgewick and Caden Shields to keep applying pressure, upset the more favoured Ariki and Caversham teams. Hill City-University crossed in 26min 4sec and Caversham was third, in 26min 24sec.
It may have been a completely new line-up, but the result was still the same, when Hill City-University dominated the senior women's 4 x 1500m race.
The team of Bella Bloomfield, Sarah Summerlee, Mary Gray and Susannah Lynch quickly overcame a strong challenge from Bridget Thompson on the first leg for Ariki. Bloomfield, the Otago 1500m champion, overcame Thompson in the closing stages of the first leg.
From then on, Summerlee, mountain biking champion Gray and Otago triathlon champion Lynch were unstoppable on their way to another successful defence of the title for the Hill City-University Club, in 21min 41sec.
Competing for the first time as a veteran athlete, Peninsula Challenge champion Neale McLanachan set his Leith team up to win the masters men's title in a smart 18min 47sec, McLanachan clocking the fastest time of the highly competitive grade with a 1500m run of 4min 30sec.
Esther Sinnald did likewise in setting Caversham up for victory in the masters women's grade, with a 1500m run of 5min 58sec and her team crossing in 25min 15sec.
Otago open women's marathon champion Mel Aitken finished seventh overall in the open women's category and third in the women's 35-39 age group in Saturday's Rotorua Marathon, which doubled as the national championship, in a personal best time of 2hr 59min 31sec.
In the open men's category, 2012 Otago marathon champion Jason Palmer, finished ninth overall and fifth in the men's 15-34 age-group in 2hr 38min 14sec.
