Andrew Lonie (Leith) flew with the strong southerly wind behind him to win the running section of the third annual 23km Otago Peninsula Challenge yesterday.
Lonie (35), who works for the Department of Conservation in Dunedin, won the gruelling event by 38sec in 1hr 38min 41sec from Kurt Gobeli (Switzerland) 1hr 39min 19sec, John Earles (Dunedin) 1hr 41min 13sec and Geoff Williamson (Leith) 1hr 41min 51sec.
Lonie has been running for six years and his previous best performance was finishing runner-up in the Dunedin Three Peaks mountain race in 2006.
He took the lead on the steep hill from the start at Allans beach and was comfortably in the lead as the field passed Cape Saunders lighthouse.
"But I never felt comfortable and could never let up," Lonie said.
"Geoff [Williamson] chased fast down the hill and was catching me around the Papanui Inlet."
Lonie was running strongly and had a 32sec lead on Williamson at the halfway point.
Gobeli was 1min 15sec behind in third place at that point but was closing fast.
"I tied up down the long hill from Cape Saunders and the others went away from me," Gobeli said.
Gobeli enjoyed the flat running around Papanui Inlet, and passed Williamson at the Pyramids to move into second place.
He was closing the gap on Lonie up the steep slope above Victory beach.
He was only 30sec behind at the top of the hill but Lonie got his second wind and, with the strong tail wind behind him, stepped up the pace to the finish.
Earles (25), a PhD scholar at the University of Otago, caught Williamson when he suffered from severe cramp a kilometre from the finish, and powered on to finish third.
Dunedin horse dentist Louisa Andrew took the lead up the second steep hill to break the resolve of last year's winner, Sue Cuthbert (Leith), to win the women's event by 2min 35sec in 1hr 48min 51sec.
Cuthbert was 1min 15sec behind at halfway and made ground on the long flat stretch around Papanui Inlet.
But Andrew stretched the margin up the steep hill above Victory beach and looked strong along the top to the finish at Taiaroa Head.
"I was running strongly and felt confident then," Andrew (35) said.
"I'm really stoked to have a win like that over Sue."
But it was still a good performance by Cuthbert, who ran 3min faster than last year with a time of 1hr 51min 26sec.
Third was Hayley Michels (Dunedin) in 2min 03min 17sec.
