Athletics: First relay win for Caversham's young guns

Caversham's rising stars came of age on Saturday, when they won the club's first cross-country relay title at the Dunedin Pony Club Grounds, on Three Mill Hill.

The team of Lyndon Brown, Tony Payne, Bevan Stevens and Peter Meffan redeemed itself for a disappointing third-place in the Lovelock Relay two weeks ago, where it carried the favouritism mantle but disappointed.

Although the Caversham team was not discounted, the form of Hill City at the Lovelock Relay, had attention turning to its battle with Ariki, so Caversham's complete domination blew in straight from left field.

Victory for the team was set in motion by Brown, who led off in the 4x3000m event.

Brown was immediately involved in a stride-for-stride battle with Hill City's Oliver O'Sullivan, with Brown eventually pulling clear to give his team a narrow 2sec advantage at the change and record fastest time on the course of 9min 7sec.

Payne kept the lead as he held out a determined Alex Gorrie for Hill City, stretching the lead to 5sec at the change to Stevens, who opened up a more than handy 30-second margin over Nathan Baxter, who had brought Ariki into second and able to challenge for the lead through Moro Half Marathon champion Dougal Thorburn.

But the Caversham horse had bolted, as Meffan held on to the valuable lead created by Stevens, keeping the two internationals in Thorburn and Hill City's Campbell Garry at bay to finish 29sec clear of Thorburn and the Ariki team in 37min 23sec, with Hill City third in 38min 7sec.

Another thrilling encounter came in the race for the senior women's title, when, as was the case in the Lovelock Relay, Hill City had to overcome the strong challenge from a talented Otago University team.

The Hill City team was loaded with nationally-ranked athletes Shireen Crumpton, Paula Whiting, Rebekah Greene and Rachel Kingsford.

But reputations counted for little as Barbara Roy took care of Crumpton, shooting Otago University into a 2sec lead and, with it, recording fastest time on the 4x2000m course.

Cassie Knight then accounted for Whiting with a tremendous turn of speed on the hill sections and increased the student lead to 13 seconds.

But the emerging talent of Greene was impressive to witness as she quickly settled into the task at hand for Hill City, firstly hauling in the deficit then gifting Kingsford a 14-second advantage for the final leg.

Kingsford doubled this lead with some strong running on the sodden course to have her team finish in 32min 45sec and 28sec clear of the Otago University challenge, with Leith third in 35min 12sec.