Rookies dominate Jumbo run

Two first timers dominated the action in the open men's section at the annual Jumbo Holdsworth trail race at Mt Holdsworth on Saturday with Wellington's James Coubrough setting a new race record.
Coubrough and Dougal Thorburn of Masterton were making their debut in the 24km event and they were a class above their rivals.
The 25-year-old Coubrough is one of the country's leading mountain runners and he used his expertise in that sphere to telling effect
He was first to Atiwhakatu Hut in 31mins, almost 90secs ahead of Thorburn and made Jumbo Hut in the fastest 61min 30secs, increasing his lead over Thorburn at that stage to just over four-and-a-half minutes.
Coubrough reached Powell Hut in an impressive 1hr 46mins 40secs compared to Thorburn's 1hr 50mins 32secs and his overall time of 2hrs 20mins 39secs easily bettered the previous best of 2hrs 22mins 28secs set by another Wellingtonian in Michael Wakelin in 2005,
Thorburn was second in 2hrs 28mins 32secs with Wakelin finishing third on this occasion in 2hrs 33mins 2secs.
Then came Wellington duo Paul Bird (2hrs 43mins 56secs) and Cameron Durno (2hrs 46mins 31secs) and Colin Rolfe of Christchurch (2hrs 50mins 31secs) with Rolfe's time winning him the veteran men's title.
The open women's section saw Fleur Pawsey of Wellington eclipse a small field by close to 24mins.Her finishing time of 3hrs 4mins 44secs was just outside the race record of 3hrs 13mins 18secs set by Sarah Kleeman last year.
Second was Harriet Miller of Wellington in 3hrs 24mins 17secs and third Harriette Carroll of Wellington in 3hrs 24mins 39secs.
The veteran women's title went to Christine Coulter of Paraparaumu in 3hrs 38mins 57secs.
The King and Queen of the Mountain titles went to Coubrough and Pawsey respectively with Coubrough's time of 1hr 12mins 45secs knocking nearly four miniutes of Wakelin's previous record time.
The Hooper Loop event raced over 12km saw Bryn Davies of Wellington win the open men's section in 59mins 26secs. He was the only runner to break the one hour mark with Jerome Kloeg of Masterton finishing second in 1hr 7mins 4secs and Nathan Lightbourne of Palmerston North third in 1hr 7mins 49secs.
Recording faster times than both Kloeg and Lightbourne were the first two placegetters in the veteran men's section, Liam Healey of Upper Hutt (1hr 4mins 33secs) and Paul Dalton of Porirua (1hr 6mins 53secs)
The best time for the women in the Hooper Loop came from a former winner of the Holdsworth Jumbo title in Carline Thomas, who won the veteran women's section in 1hr 5mins 33secs from Masterton's Sue McKenzie who clocked 1hr 24mins 39secs.
The open women's event went to Piret Klade of Wellington in 1hr 9mins 29secs from Aubrey Begley of Wellington (1hr 11mins 12secs) and Gillian Peoples, also of Wellington, (1hr 14mins 5secs).
Another notable effort in the Hooper Loop came from 16-year-old Othniel Casey, who finished fourth in the open men's section in 1hr 8mins 31secs while the youngest competitor of all,14-year-old Grace Wellington, registered an impressive 1hr 24mins 22secs.
A total of 143 runners contested either the Jumbo Holdsworth or Hooper Loop races with ages ranging from 19 to 66. Weather conditions were near pefect, being mainly cloudy with light mist falling.