Athletics: Uttley runs away with national title

Running with maturity and to a preconceived plan, Otago's Anna-Lisa Uttley won the 16-and-under title at the national cross-country championships in Christchurch on Saturday.

Going into the race, Uttley was aware her main rival was the undefeated Margot Gibson (Canterbury).

Also, with team-mate Rebekah Greene absent due to illness, Uttley knew she had to step up and run her own race.

Gibson, the national 1500m, Colgate and Pacific Games champion, had plenty of attention going into the race.

Uttley, despite not having raced Gibson before, was aware of what was required to gain the cross-country crown.

"I gave Anna-Lisa an idea of my knowledge of Margot and how I thought she'd run," coach Jim Baird said.

Uttley and Greene are the stars of the 30-strong Baird stable of promising athletes.

But without Greene in the field, the focus switched solely to Uttley.

"The plan was for Anna-Lisa to run the race as if she was in the field at the world cross-country," Baird said.

Uttley maintained contact with Gibson right from the start of the 4km event, and with 1500km to go had a 15m lead on the rest of the field.

Uttley increased the tempo and crossed the finish 100m clear in 14min 45sec, with Gibson second in 15min 7sec and Kerry White (Waikato-Bay of Plenty), third in 15min 14sec.

"The way the race was run worked out perfectly for me," Uttley said afterwards.

Uttley (16), a year 12 pupil at Bayfield High School, has maintained a tremendous record since winning the Otago cross-country last year.

She won the 16-and-under Otago road title in September and the national secondary schools junior road title in December.

She then followed up with the national girls 16-and-under 3000m track title.

There was further success for Uttley on Saturday, with Laura Carruthers (17th) and Shauna Pali (18th) joining her to claim bronze for Otago in the regional teams section.

Further individual success came for Otago runners in the masters grades, particularly on the women's 6km course, where in the 50-54 section Julie Wilson won gold and Jan Craig silver.

Louisa Andrew won silver in the masters 35-39 grade in 23min 26sec.

In the masters men's grades on the 8km course, Otago half marathon champion Kerrin Williams won bronze in the 35-39 race, and Glen Ferguson settled for silver in a photo finish for the 45-49 grade.

Otago road champion Mike Wakelin appeared to have secured silver in the 40-44 race when he was forced to pull up lame with a torn calf muscle with the finish in sight.

But consolation for Wakelin, who limped across to finish fourth, was being part of the Otago six-man team that won silver in the regional teams section.

In the 60-64 category, Ewan Fallow won bronze in 33min 5sec.

Otago's senior men's team of Dougal Thorburn (12th), Oliver O'Sullivan (18th), Tony Payne (20th), Bevan Stevens (21st), Nathan Baxter (24th) and James List (26th) all finished in the top half of the field to claim the bronze medal.

Winning the national title was former Otago champion Andrew Davidson (Canterbury), who was in a photo finish with Australian Timothy Rowe in 38min 13sec in the 12km senior men's event.

Rowe was awarded line honours and the Oceania title, but the national title was awarded to Davidson.

Completing the Australian dominance of the senior events was Melinda Verdon, who won the senior women's Oceania title in 28min 52sec on the 8km course.

Second home and first New Zealander was Fiona Crombie (Canterbury) with fellow Cantabrian Kellie Palmer third.