Richard Olsen has swapped clubs and could be the catalyst that propels Ariki to a win in the senior men's Lovelock Relay today.
The 76th running of the men's race will be held at the University Oval this afternoon. It is a race that celebrates Jack Lovelock's gold medal in the 1500m at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936.
Olsen was a member of the Caversham team that broke a 26-year drought when it won the event in 2010.
Caversham has won the men's race for the last three years and it will be a tight struggle between Caversham and Ariki today.
Olsen (28) ran for the Caversham club when he was a student at the Sports Institute of Otago for three years.
He was one of the country's top middle-distance runners at that time and was on the verge of a major breakthrough when he shifted back to his home town of Christchurch.
Olsen won the New Zealand junior 800m title when he was in Dunedin, and at the end of his three-year stint in the city he won the national senior 1500m title in 2007. He was runner-up in the 800m that year.
Olsen went back to Christchurch after that but came back to Dunedin to be a member of the winning Caversham team in 2010.
He is now a key member of the Ariki team that includes Nathan Baxter, Dave Catherwood, Anthony Trainor, Jesse Gibbs and Zac Butler and is keen to break Caversham's winning streak.
The only member of the 2010 Caversham team running for the club today is Bevan Stevens.
The two strongest members of the Caversham team are Otago 1500m champion Ben Anderson and distance specialist Peter Meffan. The other Caversham runners are Lorenz Kessling, Sam Harper and Jonah Smith.
The Hill City-University team of Kirsty O'Sullivan, Hannah Adamson, Rebekah Greene and Shauna Pali is expected to win the women's 4x1500m race.
The race was started by the Otago University club to celebrate the success of Lovelock, who ran for the club when he was a medical student in Dunedin. It is now organised by the Hill City-University club.
Lovelock Relay
At a glance
Venue: University Oval.
First held: 1937.
Distance: 6 x 1500m.
Race record: Otago University, 24min 12.6sec (1971).
Individual lap record: Andrew Stark (Canterbury University) 3min 52sec (1980).
Start times: Senior women 2.45pm, senior men 3.15pm.
