Dale Warrander's fifth victory for a hero

Five-time Rotorua Marathon winner Dale Warrander has dedicated his record-breaking feat to the man he took the title from.
In an emotional moment after crossing the finish line at the 47th running of the iconic marathon Saturday, the former Tauranga-based Olympian said his win was for the late Jack Foster, a man he looked up to and thought of as a hero.
In claiming his fifth Rotorua win the 37-year-old Warrander took over from Jack Foster - who won four titles in the 1970s - as the event's most successful athlete.
Warrander created history at the weekend, when he crossed the line in a time of 2h 23m 1s. Warrander said it was a privilege to win the race and usurp Foster's four wins in Rotorua.
"It's awesome, you know Jack Foster was one of New Zealand's all-time great marathon runners.
"Obviously what happened in 2004, when he was tragically killed, this was a good one to pay respect to him.
"He's a guy I looked up to. Guys like Jack, John Campbell, Rod Dixon and Paul Ballinger, they are guys I look up to and they've got history in New Zealand marathon running ... to get Jack's record, that was my goal and I sort of pay my win to him."
Warrander was almost two minutes ahead of Scott Winton, who crossed the line in a time of 2h 24m 53s. Masashi Shirotake of Japan was third, with Dunedin's Dougal Thorburn, running in his first marathon, taking fourth.
Winton made a break on the start of the tough uphill slog at the back of Lake Rotorua around the 16km mark and as he came off the hill Winton had built an advantage of 47 seconds over Warrander.
But the 2004 Athens Olympian slowly started to cut into Winton's advantage and at the 37km mark had caught him and then stretched away over the closing kilometres to clinch the win.
"He was the one I was worried about when this race started. But I knew Scotty would be the one to beat," Warrander said. "When he took off, I couldn't cover his move, I just didn't feel like I was ready to go, so I just let him go and just hoping it panned out like last year and I was able to come through strong in the second half and fortunately I was able to.
"I struggled the last 2km but I knew I had it in the bag by that stage and it was just a matter of getting through to the finish."
Winton said he felt strong going into the run, so decided to make his move.
"I was feeling good, we were in a group up to about 14km. Someone clipped my heel so I thought I'd just get away just to see how the other guys were feeling and to see where Dale was and to see if people would respond. But obviously Dale is a good runner and closed me down."
Rotorua's Johanna Ottosson repeated last year's triumph in the women's event, coming through over the second half to beat Dunedin's Victoria Beck.
Ottosson put nearly eight minutes on Beck to win in 2h 48m 28s, with Sally Gibbs of Katikati third.
"That was very painful. I've carried a bit of an injury but I didn't want to focus on that or tell anyone before - so I haven't spent enough time on the road so my quads were killing me with about 12km to go," Ottosson said.
"I just kept focusing on the incredible feeling from last year and what it feels like to finish first."
Wheelchair athlete Matthew Lack was also in record-breaking mood, with the 19-year-old Opotiki powerhouse taking the half marathon in a new national record of 57 minutes.
He now holds all the racing records for that age-group, which include the 100m, 200m 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5km and 10km.
Although happy to claim the record, Lack said it hadn't been easy.
"That was the toughest race I've ever done. It was head wind the whole way.
"It wasn't as fast as I would have liked to have gone, but considering the conditions it was pretty good."