Jack McNaughton, Stafford Thompson and Sam Hopper tore down Butts Rd to the finish line of the Port Road Race yesterday. McNaughton (17) emerged victorious, pulling away to claim the fastest man title in 45min 35sec. The St Paul’s athlete was closely followed by Hill City-University’s Thompson in 45min 38sec and Hopper, of Caversham, in 45min 39sec. Hill City-University’s Bella Bloomfield was the fastest woman in 52min 51sec.
McNaughton was happy with his performance. He joined the leading group with 4km to go and kicked down the final 300m.
"It’s a tough race, a bit of wind and stuff. But I pulled through and it was real good," the Southland Boys’ High School year 13 pupil said.
The race began on the corner of Sir John Thorn Dr and Borlases Rd and followed the original road into town from Port Chalmers. First held in 1902, it is billed as the oldest running race in Australasia.
A pesky headwind picked up not long before it started. As a result, times were slower than those of recent years and Alan Moir’s 1975 record of 37min 40sec went untouched for another year. Despite that, McNaughton said it was important not to worry about conditions and get on with running.
"You can’t do anything about it, so you’ve just got to race. Of course it always [impacts times], but you’ve got to get over that and just push through it."
McNaughton, of Invercargill, had travelled up to Dunedin on Saturday. He ran that same afternoon, clocking in at 4min 14.87sec to finish third in the 15-17 aged 1500m.
Bloomfield (24) finished more than two minutes ahead of the next woman, Kirsty O’Sullivan, who ran 55min 15sec. She said the race went well. She was by herself for much of it and found a comfortable pace. That had helped her relax after feeling she may have gone a little bit hard at the beginning.
"Sometimes I like [being by myself] because I can just get into my own rhythm," she said.
"Sometimes I get a bit uptight if I’m trying to hang on to someone, so I probably relaxed more and that was probably good."
She described the headwind in the second half of the race as like another hill.
The race attracted 104 runners, well up on last year’s numbers. Opening the event up to members of the public had accounted for much of the increase.
