Athletics: Inspiration drawn from Olympic champion

John Renowden recorded his second King of the Mountain crown for the year when he won the Dunedin event held at Whare Flat yesterday.

Earlier in the year, Renowden (21), working as a lifeguard in the Coromandel, won the King of the Mountain event at Pauanui, and was thrilled to back this up with a second open men's title yesterday.

He took inspiration from 1956 Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Vladimir Kuts, of the Soviet Union.

"I've been reading about the race he had with Gordon Pirie to win the 5000m gold," Renowden said.

"It felt a bit like that coming off the hill. In the race, Kuts kept surging on Pirie, a bit like it was with me today."

Renowden was locked in a battle for the lead with Geoff Williamson all the way up Whare Flat Rd.

The two were still battling it out halfway down Longridge Rd, when one of Renowden's surges gave him an advantage.

He continued to stretch this advantage to complete the 15km circuit in 59min 12sec, with Williamson finishing strong for second in 59min 56sec, 8sec clear of Neale McLanachan.

Wanphen Anderson made it all one-way traffic in the open women's section claiming the crown in 1hr 24min 27sec.

But there was jostling for position behind her, as Glenys Forsyth, Vicki Long and Maree Thomas fought out the minor places.

Anderson held a handy 56sec lead at the top heading into Longridge Rd over Thomas, with Forsyth 33sec further back, in third place.

But as Anderson ran away with the victory, Thomas was gathered in by Forsyth and then by Long who found extra pace coming off the hill.

Forsyth finished second in 1hr 28min 7sec, Long third in 1hr 28min 41sec and Thomas faded to fourth 22sec back.

First in the walking section was Maurice Vaughan in 1hr 48min 8sec, while Iris Watson was first in the female section of the walk in 1hr 53min 4sec.

• Dunedin doctor Dougal Thorburn finished runner-up in the senior event and was the best performed Otago athlete at the New Zealand mountain running championships in Wellington on Saturday.

Thorburn (28) finished the 12km up-and-down course in 53min 02sec.

The gold medal was won by Glenn Hughes (Auckland) in 52min 30sec.

Thorburn, who runs for the Ariki club in Dunedin, is a converted duathlete who switched to running eight years ago when he joined Lin Rayner's squad.

He competed in duathlons in his home town of Christchurch before entering the Otago Medical School.

Thorburn, who recently returned to Dunedin, continued his running while working in Wellington and also competed in multisport events.

He was third in the two-day event at this year's Coast to Coast in 12hr 28min 22sec.

Michael Wakelin (Hill City) was sixth in the senior men's event in Wellington in 56min 03sec.

Claire Giles (Caversham) won the masters women's aged 50 to 54 8km title in 53min 56sec, and Romana Salis (Hill City) finished eighth in the senior women's 8km race in 60min.