The annual championship event, first held in 1960, was making a return to the southeastern side of the city for the first time in almost 40 years, and on a course that found favour with those competing for its safety aspect.
Winning his first senior title was something special for the 21-year-old Hill City-University runner, but did not come without its concerns following a horror run with stress fractures that has plagued his senior career.
The third-year maths and physics student said he owed a lot to remaining injury free this year to international coaches Chris Pilone (Auckland) and Richard Barker (Dunedin), along with physical conditioning from Caden Shields and Physio Performance.
Despite pre-race apprehension, he hit the front early, holding a slight edge on the Caversham pair of Sam Hopper and Jonah Smith.
As the trio ran through the 4km mark, Bremer held a 5sec lead on Hopper and Smith, who by all appearances were being left by Bremer to battle out the minor places.
At the 6km mark Bremer had extended his lead to 31sec, with Smith first to blink in the minor places, sneaking a 2sec gap on Hopper.
But at 8km, with Bremer’s lead stretched to 54sec, Hopper was beginning to secure second place with 5sec gap over Smith.
Meanwhile, Bremer was powering away to a convincing victory in 33min 33.4sec. Hopper secured second in 34min 31.5sec, with Smith a safe third in 34min 46sec.
"That was tough yakka," Bremer said at the finish.
"I got a bit of a break and just wanted to hold it."
The last few kilometres were "pretty tough", pushing into the wind on Victoria Rd. Bremer came away from the final race on the winter programme feeling pleased that all his conditioning in building towards lowering his 800m and 1500m times on the track over summer is beginning to kick in.
"I’ll get a few road trips in this year and get a few fast times going," he said of targeting grand prix meetings over the summer including the Porritt Classic in Hamilton and the Sylvia Potts Classic in Hastings.
Katrina Andrew, also of Hill City-University, is another on the comeback trail following a two-year layoff.
Andrew (23), a first-year physical of education student, has hit the ground running in recent months.
Under the coaching guidance of Paul Hamblin (Auckland), she backed up an impressive showing in the Otago cross-country championships with victory on Saturday.
Andrew, who will contest the senior women’s 10km title in the national event in Masterton at the beginning of next month, is planning to specialise in the middle distances of 3000m and 5000m over the summer season.
Standing out in other events was the victory of Oli Chignell to win the junior men’s title, raced over 8km, in 27min 7.7sec.
The victory for Chignell had the added bonus of securing the best winter aggregate trophy.
