Athletics: Master v pupil contest awaits

Sjors Corporaal is considered the favourite for the Goat Goes Bush event this weekend. Photo / Victory Events

New Zealand's foremost mountain goat is among the field for Saturday's The Goat Goes Bush Kaimai event.

Sjors Corporaal - widely considered as the best technical off-road runner in the country - will line up alongside a host of other hopefuls in the second running of the annual event.

The five-time winner of The Goat Tongariro event is well used to rugged terrain thanks to his work as a dairy farmer in Galatea.

Corporaal is the current New Zealand Triple Crown title-holder for adventure trial running and will start as the favourite in an impressive field.

Organiser Jason Cameron of Victory Events said there are plenty of chances in the 250-strong field.

"Lance Downie of Murupara won the Big Kid Adventure Run in the tenth anniversary, while Sjors Corporaal won the Goat Tongariro for the fifth time.

"Sjors coaches Lance, so it will be a battle between master and pupil."

Cameron also tipped Tauranga's Dennis de Monchy - a former New Zealand Rogaining representative - as a chance at the top end of the field.

The event is a 17km inland bush run that starts at Wairere Falls on the western side of the Kaimai range and finishes at the Aongetete Lodge in the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park.

The first two kilometres includes a 900m section of Goodwin Road, followed by an 1100m private land section over a rocky cattle race leading to the Wairere Falls entrance.

What follows is a 15km single-track course featuring a stunning narrow gorge, bridged mountain stream crossings, native forest, the North Island's highest waterfall and a tough 121-step staircase that is not for the faint hearted.

The event debuted last year as an offshoot to The Original Tongariro event thanks to cooperation between organisers, DoC, local iwi and other private landowners, and includes 800-1000m of vertical climbing.

The race features a series of wave starts staggered five minutes apart from 10.30am, with entries open until 10pm on Friday night.