Athletics: Caversham makes it four senior men's titles in a row

Caversham reaffirmed its dominance on the Otago scene when it won a fourth consecutive senior men's title in the cross-country relays at the Dunedin Pony Club on Saturday.

The team of Ben Anderson, Shaun Burgess, Lyndon Brown and Bevan Stevens overcame the threats posed by Ariki and Hill City-University.

Brown is the sole representative from the club in all four teams since beginning its current reign in 2009.

"That victory was the turning point for us," Brown said of Caversham's 2009 victory.

"It gave us the confidence to go forward and it's been good for the club."

Brown and Stevens were members of the winning Caversham team last year, which ran a record-breaking time.

Despite Caversham posting a time 26sec slower than last year, changes to the course this year mean its winning time of 37min 3sec for the 4x3000m event will now be the mark to beat.

The lap time of 8min 57sec recorded by Stevens is now the individual time to eclipse.

Making the victory even more significant was the absence through injury of Lovelock Relay stars from two weeks ago, Peter Meffan and Jordan Maynard.

Anderson set the scene for the Caversham team as he toughed it out with New Zealand cross-country champion Andrew Davidson over the first leg, handing over to Burgess for the second leg just 9sec adrift of Davidson.

An intelligent run from Burgess saw him reduce this deficit over the top half of the course and turn it into a 12sec advantage at the change to Brown, who then extended it to 33sec over the penultimate leg before handing over the Stevens.

By this stage, Hill City-University teams appeared secure in silver and bronze positions and any threat posed by them was quickly erased by Stevens, who excelled in the conditions and extended the lead to finish 55sec clear of the Hill City-University Q team. Hill City-University R was third in 38min 57sec.

National cross-country representative Rachael Kingsford and New Zealand secondary schools representative Shauna Pali were in top form as they set Hill City-University up with victory in the senior women's 4x2000m event.

Kingsford and Pali were both members of the winning Hill City team last year, and after the Hill City and University clubs combined earlier this year they were selected in its first-choice team, along with Southland middle distance champion Christina Taylor and five-time Edmond Cup champion Kirsty O'Sullivan (nee Morris).

Kingsford opened up an initial 29sec lead before handing on to Pali, who extended this advantage over a determined Ariki team to 1min 4sec.

Hannah English (Ariki) held her own and reduced this deficit to 58sec on the penultimate leg when running against Taylor.

But O'Sullivan overcame some early nerves to power away over the bottom half of the course to bring her team home 1min 42sec clear of Ariki in 30min 58sec, with a second Hill City-University team third in 34min 58sec.

Kingsford recorded the fastest lap time with 7min 34sec.