Hill City-University's team of champions past became a champion team of the present on Saturday when it took line honours in the annual Peninsula Relay.
The team of Kirsty O'Sullivan, Elliot O'Sullivan, Bridget Thompson, Barbara Patrick, Richard Fogarty and Phil Bremer have all had varying degrees of individual success while maintaining a prestigious individual record at club and regional level.
Kirsty O'Sullivan (nee Morris), Elliot O'Sullivan and Bridget Thompson (nee Hurring) were all nationally ranked junior athletes in their time, while Patrick needs little introduction, having set numerous age-group records over a number of distances.
First held in 1950, the popular interclub handicapped team event has a rich history of athletic talent and traffic changes over the past 66 years.
Each event had its own defining tale and Saturday's was no different.
It began with an armed offenders alert in the area used for the final three legs of the six-leg event (Papanui Inlet, Hoopers Inlet and Cape Saunders), but once the event had been given the green light to continue, many runners from the front marks suffered in heavy rain, wind chill and spray from the high tide.
Alison Newall (Caversham Mixed) did well to battle through the early conditions and held a 10-minute advantage at the first change, but it was runs from Penny Easton, Christine Montgomery and Tom McKinlay, representing the Leith No3 team, that posed an early threat.
McKinlay, complementing the runs from Easton and Montgomery with an outstanding run over the 5.4km leg from the Sandymount and Highcliff Rds intersection to the Portobello Domain, handed Cliff Kelway Pope a four-minute lead for the fourth leg, the 4km run to Cape Saunders.
Although six minutes adrift of the lead at the change to the fourth leg, Patrick rose to the challenge, bringing Hill City-University into the lead for the changeover to Fogarty to run the fifth leg, a 5.6km loop of Cape Saunders Rd, Sheppard Rd and Allans Beach Rd.
Midway through, Fogarty had extended the lead to almost four minutes, and he put the hammer down on the turn from Sheppards Rd back towards Cape Saunders, making good use of a strong wind at his back, to extend the lead.
With daylight second, Bremer was unrelenting and held a seven-minute lead at the turn up Weir Rd as the course turned towards the finish at Portobello.
An impressive run from Peter Frew (Civil Service) was not enough to haul in the lead opened up by the Hill City-University team, and Bremer crossed for the victory in a running time of 2hr 8min 6sec.
Frew crossed some 3min later.
"It was a blend of youth and experience that won it for us,'' Bremer, the team captain, said.
"We had a very good first leg with Kirsty leading off and then Elliot powered up the hill and I think from then on in it was pretty good going.
"On the fifth leg we had our second weapon in Richard Fogarty and he tore around the course and left me with a handy lead, which I managed to hold on to.''
It was a welcome return to the podium for Caversham when its men's No1 team of Alex Dodds, Ioan Fuller, Ken McDonald, Sam Hopper, Jake Jackson-Grammar and Blair Martin took fastest time honours on the 29.5km course, clocking 1hr 40min 20sec.
Five of the team, Dodds, McDonald, Hopper, Jackson-Grammar and Martin all took fastest time honours on their respective legs.
Team members put their success down to Hopper's DJ skills and choice of music in the team van, but whether team members took a welcome respite or rushed to get back for more, Saturday's result added to the team's success at the Otago Cross-country a week earlier.
Second-fastest was Hill City-University 2 in 1hr 45min 3sec, with Leith 1 third-fastest in 1hr 49min 28sec.
