The English-born New Zealand mountain-running representative from Wānaka comfortably won the 60km lap around the Kepler Track in 5hr 48min.
She was 15min ahead of Frances Redmond and 21min ahead of international trail runner and former long-distance triathlete Beth McKenzie, from Australia.
"It feels amazing - I honestly didn’t expect to win today,” Morgan said.
"When I saw that Beth McKenzie was in, I didn’t think I’d be able to stay ahead of her on the flats, so I’m super chuffed. I knew that there wouldn’t be much in it and so I went out a bit harder than I normally would and I was just waiting for her at any moment to catch me on the flats.”
Morgan, who has also won an ultra event in Canada this year, never felt as comfortable as her winning margin suggested.
"It’s not often you can look behind you and the one time I did, I fell over, so I tried not to do that too much.”
Alexandra runner Daniel Balchin also had to recover from a spill before eventually winning the men’s race in 5hr 3min.
The project manager, who finished second in the Auckland marathon five weeks ago, fell heavily on the technical descent from Hanging Valley into Iris Burn and saw his lead over Wellington’s Thomas Barnes evaporate.
Balchin set a blistering record in the event’s companion race, the Luxmore Grunt, three years ago before finishing third behind Daniel Jones in the 60km Challenge last year.
With Jones opting not to return to Te Anau and try for a seventh consecutive Kepler title, the men’s race had an air of intrigue about it for the first time in a while.
"I’ve done the Luxmore Grunt a couple of times and the Kepler last year," Balchin said.
‘‘I was stoked to get the win. It means a lot. It’s an awesome one to tick off because it’s a prestigious race on the trail scene.
"I managed to get a bit of a lead at the start and then tripped and fell on the downhill. I’m more of a road runner and I was a bit clumsy there, but I managed to get a gap on the flat on the way home."
Barnes finished 12min down on the winner. Benje Patterson, who won the Luxmore Grunt as a teenager 20 years ago, finished third.
Aucklander Jonathan Jackson returned to bank his second straight, and third overall, Luxmore Grunt win, claiming the 27km race to the Luxmore Hut and back in 1hr 55min, just over 2min ahead of Whakatane’s Liam Dooley.
Penny Mouat, of Christchurch, put her Port Hills training to good use to win the women’s race.
"It was epic," Mouat said.
‘‘The climb was beautiful and then the downhill was great. I fell down half the track but I bounced back up and then the final 5km was punishing, with a sprint for the last mile.”
The Kepler Challenge had a capacity field of 450 runners after selling out in 2min 8sec when entries opened in July. They enjoyed cool morning conditions that gave way to warm and windy weather in the afternoon.
- By Nathan Burdon
