With an eye on the national prize, Otago cross-country champion Peter Meffan made short work of a rejigged Edmond Cup steeplechase at Wingatui Racecourse on Saturday.
Meffan (23), who is remaining in Dunedin while taking a break between his fifth and sixth years studying medicine, claimed the individual open men's title in convincing fashion.
The Edmond Cup, first held in 1907, was devised as an interclub cross-country team contest over three miles.
The course distance was increased to just over 10km, in keeping with the national cross-country standard 50 years ago, but has gone back to nearly the original distance, and was raced for the first time over 5000m.
Meffan (Caversham) went to the front from the start, with clubmates Joshua Baan and defending champion Ben Anderson keeping close contact.
With Anderson falling 10m off the pace after the first lap, Meffan powered away from Baan on the turn into the back straight for the second and final time.
He was conscious of having to keep forcing the pace to the finish in order to hold Baan out.
''I put in a bit of an effort there,'' Meffan said.
''I knew once I was on the fast surface on the back straight, I could just keep my pace going and he wouldn't make any ground on me.''
Meffan, who also won the open men's title in 2012, had planned to lead from the front and keep applying the pressure, making his own rules for the business end of the race.
''I knew I was hitting good form coming into this, so I just had to work on the tactics,'' he said.
''Being a shorter race, it's a completely different tactical game, as well. It means you have to go out quite quickly and that's quite difficult when you have slow conditions.''
Despite cramping in his legs on the soft and uneven surface down the home straight, Meffan thrived in the new two-lap format, crossing to finish in 16min 44sec. Baan was second in 17min 6sec and Anderson third in 17min 21sec.
Meffan, who finished second in the 10km section of the Christchurch marathon at Queen's Birthday Weekend, and third in the South Island cross-country championships last week, was recently selected for the world mountain running championships in Italy in September.
He will be using the hills of Dunedin as his training ground, and the Otago cross-country championships in two weeks, along with the national event next month, as part of his strength and condition work for the world event.
Meffan, Baan and Anderson set the platform for Caversham to regain the interclub team trophy, with Kenneth McDonald (12th), Jonah Smith (13th) and Geoff Anderson (18th) also contributing.
In a nice piece of race history, father and son Geoff and Ben Anderson were part of the the winning team. For Geoff, a two-time winner of the Otago cross-county title, it was his first Edmond Cup team medal.
Hot on the heels of her national secondary schools senior cross-country title, Hanna English (Ariki) won the opening women's section of the event.
English, a year 12 pupil at Columba College and member of the national junior football wider squad, held out defending champion and off-road specialist Louisa Andrew and Otago marathon champion Mel Aitken.
Her time was 19min 22sec. Andrew finished second in 19min 55sec and Aitken third in 21min 5sec.
A hurdling style that featured a 360deg turn raised some eyebrows but it may have helped English stay in front.
''I would look up and see Louisa coming, which made me more determined to maintain the lead,'' she said.
English has a busy calendar ahead with the Otago cross-country, national cross-country and the Oceania championships in Perth all before the end of next month.
South Otago High School year 11 pupil Tasmyn White (15) showed she is a champion in waiting for the open grade with a convincing win the in the junior 2500m event in 10min 28sec.
