RowangLive2: 2019-06-30

Karl Jackson: Is this the look of joy or anguish?

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Stuff Race Report

As Forest Gump would say life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you will get. So for some, today's results will be a disappointment, while for others it was happy times are here again.

The fields in the main three running races were big especially in the half marathon event. The weather was good with clear skies and little wind. I do wonder if the rapidly warming day might have been an issue this year especially on the return journey when the winter sun was higher in the sky getting rid of the early morning chill and pushing up the temperature.

In the marathon there were a number of competitors able to score a win and there was plenty of speculation about that.

In the end it was Hiro Tanimoto who endured coming home in a respectable time of 2.27.12. This is a long way off his PB of 2.20 but he seemed pretty happy with the result. He showed me the lacerations to his foot caused by his running shoes which would have given him some discomfort if not pain.

Mark Moore who came home in second place might be disappointed though clocking 2.31.52 which is down on his previous two marathon efforts where he ran sub 2.30 both times. Maybe racing today was a bit too soon after Christchurch.

Also likely to be disappointed is Chris Wareham who ran 2.42.09 compared to his PB of around 2.36.

By contrast though, Matt Moloney who finished one place ahead of Chris W posted a new PB with a 2.39.08 for 5th place. So he should be happy with his performance today.

In the women's grade first home was Sonya Cameron who ran 3.02.46. Cameron was not fancied as a potential winner in the race preview buy she cleaned up over some of the favorites, I believe her time could be a PB but I don't know for sure. Certainly it is a huge improvement on her Christchurch marathon time of 3.16.43 set only a few weeks ago.

The 2nd woman to finish the marathon was Lisa Brugnull in 3.05.53.

Third was Ingrid Cree who ran 3.10.37.

In the half marathon the two favourites for the men's race were Chris Dryden from Christchurch and last year's winner Niam MacDonald.

Dryden who is the current under 20 NZ cross country champion probably had the edge in terms of personal bests having finished the Christchurch half a few weeks ago in 1.07.

MacDonald won the this race last year in around 1.10 in poor conditions which no doubt made times slower. He has also been racing well since a bout of glandular fever earlier in the year, in fact he has been on a roll lately.

But not today as it seems he did not finish the race although he was with Dryden at the half-way mark. Something happened and as yet I don't know what.

But although MacDonald was out of it, it seems that Dryden had to deal with the potential threat from Canadian Nick Sunseri who was not that far behind at the finish and who has a PB over the distance of around 1.07. Dryden prevailed though and finished with a time of 1.08.54 outside of his PB while Sunseri ran 1.09.07 for 2nd.

Nathan Tse ran a great race for third place setting a new PB of 1.10.47 which proves he is capable of a sub 70 in the not too distant future.

Dr Doogie Thorburn was 4th and from the look of him at the end it seems he must have run himself to near exhaustion.

Behind him was Brian Garmonsway with arch rivals Stephen Day and Andrew Wharton just back a tad and locked in a sprint finish to see who would have the bragging rights for the day.

In the disappointment stakes Ben Twyman will not be happy with his 1.15.53 and to make it worse Dan Hunt was only 3 seconds back. What is the world coming to?

The current NZ Women's Cross Country champion, Lisa Cross was the clear favourite for the women's half marathon race. She did not disappoint winning decisively in 1.17.17 which smashed the previous race record of 1.17.40 set by Ruby Muir in 2017. This performance puts $1,000 into her pocket for the win and another $1,000 for setting a new record.

More to come....