It was a repeat of last year when Rohan Biggs of the Scottish Harriers club in Wellington clocked fastest time in the Wairarapa country marathon held around two laps of the Pakaraka circuit yesterday.
Biggs was first home in 2008 in 2hrs 45mins 34secs and in more favourable weather conditions he
returned a slightly faster time of 2hrs 43mins 49secs on this occasion. It was a powerful front running effort on his past and he finished more than 11mins ahead of runner-up Graeme Butcher of Masterton.
Butcher's performance was, however, a noteworthy one as just three weeks previous he had represented New Zealand in the Commonwealth 100km race at Keswick in England, placing 19th in world-class company. He had estimated a finishing time of around 3hrs 10mins for yesterday's even because of a lack of speed work so his time of 2hrs 54mins 55secs was impressive, to say the least. Third fastest in the marathon was Michael Beaumont with a time of 2hrs 56mins 38secs.
Tony Price of Masterton had one objective on his mind when he started the half-marathon raced around one lap of the Pakaraka circuit
He was keen to break the record of 1hr 19mins for the men's 50yrs age group but he did better than that.
Not only was his time of 1hr 17mins 54secs well inside that record previously held by Richard Brent of Scottish Harriers and Rod Sutherland of Masterton but it was comfortably good enough to have him first over the finishing line as well.
For Price the half-marathon was his last competitive outing before he contests the national marathon championships in Invercargill on November 22.
As a 10 times winner of the Wairarapa marathon Price is no novice at the 42kms and he is hoping to record a time of around 2hrs 46mins in the deep south, which would hopefully be good enough to give him the 50yrs Masters title there as well.
Price had 2mins to spare from Michael Wilton of United Harriers yesterday with Gavin Champion of Masterton third. This trio set a fast pace from the outset and stayed together for the first 5kms, at which stage Price slowly but surely built what was to be a winning lead.
A half-marathon walk and a 10km run-walk were also part of yesterday's action which attracted a combined entry of over 400 athletes.
