Police have charged a 58-year-old Dunedin man with possessing a double-barrelled shotgun while intoxicated after an incident on the Otago Peninsula on Saturday.
A police spokesman said police were called to the Portobello area just before noon after reports a man was drunk and carrying a shotgun.
Police arrested a man about an hour later and recovered a shotgun.
The cross-country event Peninsula Relay, which starts and ends at Portobello Domain, was being run as the incident was unfolding.
Relay organiser Greg Johnston said a relay marshall had driven past the man as police searched for him.
The man stepped to the side of the road and waved at the marshall, with shotgun in hand, which appeared to be cocked, Mr Johnston said.
Police called the relay organisers because the fifth leg of the relay course covered an area where the man was reported to have been seen.
"We had a contingency plan in place if we had to avoid the area but it didn't eventuate.''
The man was arrested before competitors reached the area and the race continued as planned, he said.
