Voss nearly didn't start race he won

Reporoa's Michael Voss. PHOTO/JO MURRAY, ATHLETICS WELLINGTON

Reporoa's Michael Voss had no trouble on the road, but he nearly gave up on his goal of retaining his New Zealand under 20 8km title before he got to the start line on Saturday.

Voss, 19, had picked up a stomach bug in the lead up, and right up to the morning of the race it was touch and go as to whether he would be able to defend his title.

''It was horrible - I got the bug and had the whole week off work and did minimal running - just half hour jogs to tick the legs over for the whole week,'' he said.

''Every run I'd done that week had been disrupted, I had to stop and stretch out because stomach so sore.

''I woke up Friday morning and thought 'I don't know if I'll bother going', and even waking up on Saturday morning I was still umming and aahing about it.''

The first two laps of the 1km course were ''painfully slow''.

''Everyone was just watching everyone else so I just decided to go off the front at 2.5k and everyone else just fell off so I just ran my own race I guess.''

He said it helped that he could dictate his own pace.

''Starting off slow helped to warm up. With the way I was feeling had no idea how it was going to go, but then once we were moving, I felt all right. My stomach was still not 100 per cent, but good enough to keep going.''

In his final season in the under 20 age group, Voss will be among the elite next year.

''It's going to be a lot tougher, but I'm looking forward to it.''

Next on the radar is a tilt at the course record at the New Plymouth half marathon in four week's time and then, in late October, the Auckland half.

''Then I'll take it back for the summer season on the track - the 1500m, 5km and 10km.''

Longer term Voss has the Olympic marathon in his sights, possibly in 2020.

''That would be awesome if can get the times right down and do the New Zealand qualification (time). That might be a bit early, so maybe the Olympics after that, but that's definitely the goal one day.''

While the illness was an inconvenience, his preparing under coach Kim Stevenson had gone extremely well.

''It's not what you run in the (lead up) week, it's what you do in the three months of training before it, which all went really well. I was getting in some good mileage - 160km weeks - and had no injuries. I think that's what got me through on Saturday.''

Voss won in a time of 26min 44sec. Sean Eustace was second in 26min 57se and Stefan Przychodzko third in 26min 58sec.