Napier harrier Eric Phimister belied his age when winning the masters men's title at the Hawke's Bay-Gisborne road race championships in Gisborne.
Phimister, 58, relished the fast flat course in the city's industrial area and after a cautious start on Saturday, steadily worked his way through the field to win the
10km race by 47 seconds with a time of 38m 07s. His clubmate Niall McCormack was second with a personal best time of 38m 54s.
The senior titles were won by Gisborne athletes with endurance racer Rhys Burns taking the men's title in 36m 40s and Gretchen Morrison claiming the women's in 42m 04s.
The closest finish came in the B12 2km race where Napier's Shamus Christison was made to work hard over the entire course by Gisborne's Brad File.
Christison, a son of top Hawke's Bay multisporter George Christison, surged several times over the final 500m to finally break File's challenge and won in 7m 30s _ three seconds faster than File. Christison's younger brother, Bradley, was third in 7m 34s.
Napier running siblings were once again to the fore with Eric and Brendan Speakman wining their respective M19 and M16 races, and Georgia Creagh wining the G12, doing one better than her sister, Annie, who had to settle for second to Gisborne's Georgia Harris in the G14.
Hastings race walker Quentin Rew's strong 45m 16s 10km walk saw him selected to the small HBG team to contest the national road champs in Dunedin in three weeks.
Defending M19 champion Eric Speakman, national M45 cross country champ Ross McIntyre, Phimister and Brendan Speakman are also in the team.
