Dougal Thorburn, having elected not to compete in the national mountain running championships in Motueka, ran away with Dunedin's Three Peaks Mountain race yesterday.
It was Thorburn's first time on the course and he wasted no time in attacking the demanding nature of its terrain, becoming locked in an uphill struggle with defending champion Norman Dunroy over the first two summits of Flagstaff and Swampy.
Thorburn, a national mountain representative last year, quickly discovered he had a race on his hands when he was not able to shake the threat posed by Dunroy.
However, nearing Swampy summit Thorburn realised Dunroy was not as strong on the flat and downhill sections.
After leaving Swampy summit, Thorburn was able to take advantage and opened up a lead on Dunroy to hold a decisive lead at Mt Cargill for the run down to Bethune's Gully and the finish at Chingford Park.
With the course being extended this year, Thorburn's time of 1hr 55min 44sec will stand as a record.
The chute and Thompson's farm sections have now been bypassed for a run down to Morrison's Burn before linking on to Leith Valley Rd.
This has added between two and three minutes to the original course.
Given these estimations, Thorburn could have gone close to breaking Aaron Strong's long-standing course record of 1hr 53min.
Dunroy finished in a quicker time than last year, despite the extended course variation.
His time of 2hr 4min 33sec, bettered last year's winning time by 1min 17sec.
"No wonder I feel a bit tired," he said at the finish.
Third home was Andrew Lonie in 2hr 6min.
A welcome respite from a niggling stress fracture saw Sarah Chisnall win the open women's section in 2hr 19min 56sec.
For Chisnall, it gives her back-to-back records in the event as she held the record on the original course of 2hr 9min 3sec.
It has been a battle with injury for Chisnall, who has only been able to achieve two months of quality running over the past two years.
She has had to accept that it is something that she will always suffer from, and that it is just a matter of running when the pain has subsided.
"It felt good running today," she said at the finish yesterday.
"There was no pressure. No expectations. It was just awesome."
Chisnall finished with both her legs bloodied from a fall in the new section of the course.
Second in the women's section was Louisa Andrew in 2hr 31min 46sec, with Sue Cuthbert third in 2hr 37min 23sec.
Jet lag may have been a factor for Chris Sole, who said he felt unusually exhausted at the finish.
Sole, one of the personalities with the event over the past decade, only arrived back in Dunedin last Sunday.
He had spent the previous three weeks in South Africa, where he had competed for his old university athletic team in a relay around the Cape Town peninsula.
Sole had then competed in the 18km trail run up Table Mountain, where he finished 12th in 1hr 40min.
The winner's time was 1hr 30min.
Yesterday, Sole completed Dunedin's premier mountain race in 2hr 28min 22sec.
