It was a birthday Cameron Avery (Christchurch Avon) will savour for life, after making use of a chance visit to Dunedin to contest the Otago Cross-country championships at Waikouaiti on Saturday.
Avery, who was celebrating his 19th birthday on Saturday, was in Dunedin to see friend Tony Roche play Sonny in the Taieri Musical Society and DKCM Ltd's production of Grease: The Arena Spectacular at the Edgar Centre.
Avery said he wanted to make the most of the opportunity to see his mate play the part, and looked to see if he could combine it with any racing.
Saturday's cross-country proved too good a chance to miss, as he cast an eye cast towards the national cross-country championships in Auckland in two weeks.
"I just wanted a good hit-out heading into nationals in a couple of weeks, so I decided to run up a grade in the seniors because I thought there'd be a bit more competition,'' he said.
Strong front-running from Kirk Madgwick (Hill City-University), the Edmond Cup runner-up of two weeks ago, broke the field up early and the race appeared to be Madgwick's to lose over the first two of five 2km laps.
But as Oli Chignell (Hill City-University) and Avery came back at him, the pace proved too tough for Madgwick to sustain, and he began to drift back into the field.
Avery and Chignell wound the pace up to hold a 40sec advantage entering the hill section for the fourth time.
However, with Chignell contesting the junior men's title over 8km, Avery faced the daunting task of a solo run over the final 2km to complete the senior 10km course.
Avery ran through the 8km mark with Chignell, netting him a handy 67sec lead over Blair Martin (Caversham), who was 20sec ahead of Sam Bremer (Hill City-University) and the rest of the field.
Sensing victory only quickened Avery's stride over the final lap, and he crossed in a smart time of 33min 7sec. Martin held Otago middle-distance champion Bremer at bay to finish 1min 23sec behind in second place.
Bremer was third in 34min 51sec.
"I really wanted to try and test myself, to see how it went,'' Avery said.
Avery's memories of racing in Dunedin cross-country conditions were still a little raw when he first saw the course on Saturday, and the hill that he would have to traverse five times.
He competed on a similar course at East Taieri in the national secondary schools championships last year, in a senior boys race he would rather forget.
But victory may come with a reprimand, as he had arranged with his coach, Barry Magee, to contest the 8km junior men's event.
Magee, a Lydiard disciple who won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics, coaches several New Zealand promising junior athletes, and Avery may have some explaining to do, should he falter at the national event.
As Avery is registered in Canterbury, Martin's second was enough to secure his first Otago cross-country title in his long illustrious athletic career.
It was previously one of the few Otago senior titles to have eluded him.
Jean Kozyniak (Wellington Harriers) set a torrid pace in the senior women's event, also held over the 10km course, splitting apart the field early.
But Jim Baird-inspired Katrina Andrew sat in behind and took the lead with a lap remaining. She poured on the pace over the final stages to finish in 40min 2sec.
Kozyniak crossed 58sec later in second place and Sabrina Grogan (Hill City-University) was third in 42min 10sec.
With Andrew not yet registered and Kozyniak registered outside Otago, the Otago senior women's crown was awarded to third placed Grogan.
