The young guns of the Civil Service club set their team up for victory in the 65th edition of the Peninsula Relay on Saturday.
Running from a handicap of 10min, Ella Ritchie, Luke Worthington, Emily Worthington, Peter Clark, Peter Smith and Rob Homan won the club's third title in the event this century, and the first since 2003.
Ritchie (nee Clark) got the team away to a flying start on the 4.4km first leg between John Wilson Ocean Dr and Shiel Hill for her second winner's medal in the event.
She ran the final leg, in what was then an eight-leg relay finishing in Fryatt St, that secured victory for Civil Service in 2001. It was contested on Saturday for the first time as a six-leg relay, finishing at Portobello.
In another nod to history, Peter Clark - Ritchie's father - also made a significant contribution. He handled the old seventh leg, between Macandrew Bay and Portsmouth Dr, in 2001, and on Saturday produced a blistering run on the 7.1km fourth leg from Pukehiki to Portobello, to shoot the club into the lead.
Earlier, the club's young guns - Ritchie and the Worthington siblings, Luke and Emily - had put in brilliant performances on the testing three uphill legs to Pukehiki.
Emily Worthington's run on the 4.7km leg between Centre Rd and Pukehiki was one of sheer courage.
With her left thigh heavily bandaged from a hamstring strain picked up when she finished fifth in the Dunedin marathon in 3hr 51min 19sec, she brought the team within a few steps of second place and just a minute from the leaders.
That was all Clark needed. With a sniff of the lead, he quickly got down to business, and when coming off the hill into Portobello, he took his team into the lead, catching team-mate Smith napping.
Smith was startled to see Clark scream past him at a rate of knots, and had to sprint past Clark to make it to the changeover point, 50m up the road, in order to take the baton for the penultimate leg.
It was a gutsy run from Smith on the 4km leg to Cape Saunders. Although overtaken by Taieri and Ariki teams, he kept his team in touch with the leaders, giving national 800m age-group champion Rob Homan something to chase.
Homan regained the lead midway through the 7km final leg from Cape Saunders around the Papanui Inlet before returning to Portobello and the finish. The team completed the course in 2hr 18min 21sec.
It was Clark's and Smith's third win in the event. Smith had won it as a junior runner for the Anglican Club in 1966 and 1967, and Clark was a member of victorious Civil Service teams in 2001 and 2003.
Victory for Homan was just reward for a great captain's run on the final leg, which turned into a three-way battle for line honours, between him, Alistair Chisnall (Ariki) and Ken Wyber (Taieri).
Homan praised a ''magnificent'' team performance.
''Pete [Smith] was a last-minute replacement and he did well to keep contact,'' he said.
He was also full of praise for the Worthingtons for their efforts on their uphill stages.
''There was nothing but hill for them.''
Fastest time for the new-look 30.4km relay was gained by the Caversham No1 team of Ben Anderson, Geoff Anderson, Alistair Meffan, Jonah Smith, Sam Hopper and Ken McDonald, who completed the course in 1hr 47min 19sec, finishing 12th out of 16 teams.
