Only one person has ever held the cup for a second time, but that was by default when the 1992 event could not be held because of ground conditions.
Williment (42), a sawmill hand in Milton, won the event for the first time two years ago and was always among the list of early favourites yesterday, but his clubmates were doubting his chances after his performance at a function on Saturday evening.
Three jugs of beer before a meal of fish and chips and another pint was hardly the ideal race preparation, they reckoned. But midway through the fourth and final laps in the 5km event encompassing Kettle Park, the 2006 champion began to make his move, and a lap later, 800m from the finish, he was challenging Michael Dooley (Taieri) for the lead. The two remain locked together, and in the 100m run up the finishing chute Dooley appeared to have the edge, but in the dive for the line it was Williment by the narrowest of margins.
Williment credited his victory to running the Waitati circuit every second week for the past three months in preparation for next Sunday's Christchurch Marathon.
"It's all a bit unreal, really," he said, referring to being the first to win the title a second time.
"But it's great to now be a part of Otago athletics history.
And races such as this don't get any closer than that.
It was a straight-out sprinting duel."
While Williment recorded a running time of 20min 5sec, Mike Wakelin (Hill City) recorded the fastest-time honours with 17min 17sec.
Angela McIntee (Civil Service) won the open women's title in similar circumstances, when she held out the fast-finishing Kerry Rowley (Caversham) in a sprint over the final 200m.
McIntee found another gear over the final 100m to hold out Rowley, a New Zealand Ironman representative.
Competing from a handicap of 45sec, McIntee always looked set to finish well up, once she had worked her way through the front markers.
Rowley loomed as her biggest threat over the final lap, and it was to McIntee's credit that she was able to hold her rival out.
McIntee (45) a nurse, came to New Zealand five years ago, and a hamstring injury sustained while playing football led her into running.
"I was advised, because of the twisting and turning, not to play football.
But I needed to do something, so turned to running four years ago," she said.
McIntee has long been prominent in sports.
She was a member of a Limerick team that contested the all-Ireland hurling final before coming to New Zealand, and she has also excelled in Futsal.
She attributed yesterday's victory to a new pair of running spikes she bought a year ago but was wearing for the first time. She completed the 3.75km course in 21min 1sec. Rachel Kingsford (Hill City) was in a class of her own, winning fastest-time honours with 14min 32sec.
