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This page was last edited on Saturday, 21 June 2008

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NZ Road Relay Championships, Feilding, 28 September 2002
Top club from the top town

Scottish was awarded the top club medal for the second year in a row in a tight battle based on the top three places in the "counting" grades. This year saw close finishes in many of the grade races and the spread of top places across clubs meant that countbacks were needed to sort out the "top club" winner.

Top Scottish placings in the counting grades were: senior men, masters women, both first; junior men and men 50 and over, third. The MM40 team was 4th (narrowly missing 3rd place by seven seconds), while the SMB team was 6th in senior men's A grade. Other high placings in the informal grades were: Walkers A, 1st; Walkers B, 3rd; SMC, 4th in the senior men's B grade; P team, 3rd in the senior men's C grade. All achieved with a contingent of 16 teams.

The lead in the senior men's race over 67.4k of rolling country roads switched back and forth between Scottish and arch rivals Bays Cougars. In a fitting finale to running (for a while), John Henwood ran a blinder to close a 1:09 minute gap and bring home victory for Scottish by 23 seconds, keeping the title with the club. The masters women mounted a strong challenge against Hamilton Hawks who have made this title their own for the past three years. In the end, Scottish crossed the finish line of the 38.2k short course four seconds ahead of the Hawks. Our junior men, largely aged 14-16, were moved into third by a great performance from Tim Hodge on the last lap which pushed Bays into fourth. Both Tim and Terefe Ejigu knocked off second fastest laps.

John Stewart's account:

Wellington Scottish men retained their national Road relay title at the "Manawatu Town and Country" event in Feilding. Commonwealth Games 10,000m rep John Henwood led the team home with the fastest lap seven from Bays Cougars final lap runner Clyde Rosanowski. Scottish got of to a good start with Rees Buck one minute ahead at lap one change. On the 2nd lap, marathon rep Craig Kirkwood kept Scottish ahead of Bays (by 33 seconds) even though there was an impressive run by Alan Bunce who cleared out by over a minute from Phil Costley, Papanui TocH. Blair Martin maintained a strong lead (1:15) with the fastest third lap over Hamish Carter and on lap 4 Dale Warrender prevailed as the quickest bringing Bays back into the reckoning with a strong run to finish on level terms with Todd Stevens. The 5th lap of saw Robbie Johnston and Matt Dravitzki run together until Dravitzki edged ahead over the last phase by 11 seconds. At this stage Lyndale club had moved through to third. The penultimate legs saw Bays edge ahead through fastest lap performance of Jason Cameron taking 80 secs out of Ben Ruthe with the hand on to Clyde Rosanowksi (1:09 ahead of Scottish), but Henwood soon moved through to a commanding lead. The Men's B grade title went to Pakuranga and the C grade to Lyndale.

Jane Anderson was Counties-Manukau star when she completed lap 5 by over 7mins quicker than her Wellington Harrier's counterpart to propel them back into the lead. Wellington had a positive beginning and only on the fifth leg did they surrender the lead. Carline Macdonald World Masters Mountain Running champion gained time on the penultimate lap but track athlete Kate McIlroy was unable to make an impression on Counties Manukau's Sarah Christie who took line honours for Counties to retain their title.

Junior men's Hamilton City Hawks retained their title from last year with National road Champion Garit Read taking the fastest junior lap on 4 as did his team-mate Ben McHale who led them home on the last lap with Wellington Harriers placing second. They had fastest laps from Ross Sommerville on lap three and Allan Lacey on lap five. The event was led out by National Secondary Schools Cross Country champion Dino Bozzone with Mountain Running team mates Matthew Prosser and Max Smith leading the times on lap two.

In the Junior Women's Wellington Harriers took the honours with Hamilton City Hawks second and Bays Cougars third. The first lap saw Patricia Ross lead for Hawks handing on to Michelle Hyland, before Kelly Holyoake took the lead for Wellington on lap three. It was Sarah Morgan of Hawks coming back, to lead on lap four before Ilandre Bester regained the lead for Wellington and Alice Mason retained this gap from Rowan Baird to win.

In the master women's grade provided the closest result of the day with a narrow win of four seconds to Wellington Scottish over the Hamilton City Hawks team looking for their fourth consecutive title. The Scottish team of Alison Draine, Bernie Portenski, Robyn Stansfield, Michele Alison, Jenny McDonald, and Betty Harp have been close on number of occasions in recent years and were too strong for their Hawks counterparts.

In the masters men, Auckland University lead the whole way for a resounding victory of nearly nine minutes over Tasman Tigers and Hamilton City Hawks. Their team of Ian Richards, Bruce Nicholson, Gavin Stevens, Steve Wright, Ken Maloney, Garahan Mackie and Brett Katterns were right in the mix with the senior mens holding between sixth and tenth place overall for most of the journey. The men's master 50+ age grade was taken out by Tasman Tigers ahead of Tauranga Ramblers and Scottish. In the walking event which had five teams, Wellington Scottish led home in this social grade.

Paul's race notes:

• The Scottish experience with relays ranged from 30 years (examples: Brian Cattermole and Steve Hunt) down to none (Katie Winterborne and Kate Horan, for example).
• The same event can provide contrasting experiences: the huge buzz at the front, versus the quiet at the other end: in my 10k lap, I saw only one other runner.
• The colourful language of Karen Evans as she stopped at the end of her lap and waited for Bev Hodge to arrive. Among other things, it included the phrase, "There's a Scoscar in this!" Ditto for young Shaun Hunt and his too slow removal of his warm-up pants.
• Strange how the wind in your face always seemed to pick up when you went up a hill.
• In long course lap 5, Gordon Walker came upon a young woman struggling up a hill who suggested they should run to the end of the lap together. But once they had reached the top of the hill, recharged, she took off so fast he never saw her again. You were conned by the oldest trick in the book, Gordon!
• Pity the little village of Halcombe which experienced an invasion of some 860 runners and walkers (not to mention their supporters) from about 10am until about 12:35, when the last runner went around the village cenotaph; at that point, a rally of 150 bikers descended like a swam of locusts covering the town square with bikes and black leather.
• I heard lots of praise for this new course and the Fielding Moa Harrier Club who did a fine organising job for the event. Things were well enough in hand that the Moas were able to enter four teams in the relay.
• Funny how local 10k and half marathons are well populated with walkers and some clubs are dominated by walkers. Yet only three clubs - Calliope, Wanganui and Scottish - entered race walking teams.
• The young men of the Ariki Club in Dunedin, dressed in farmers' tweeds and loud ties, put their spin on the event's tag of "Town and Country" relay.
• As this is a new course, Bob Stephens is claiming his fastest lap in the MM50 grade as a world record. Well done, Bob!
• Nigel Doyle's Fun Run Photos (See Cool Running) has more than our fair share of Scottish runners in various stages of post-race distress. What is P-team captain Glen Wallis up to on the grass? Trying out a new chafing cure? At the other end of the spectrum, look for Jim Kerr's deep digging at the end of the last lap for the masters 40 team. Stay with us, Jim.
• It will be a good while before the P Team stops crowing about their third place in the C grade. And about the fact they were less than an hour behind the A team. 

Unless some other centre puts in a bid, next year's national road relay champs could be around the same course.

Results with runners' names | Photos

Scottish individual results