Athletics: Repeat Red Stag win for men's open team

It was back-to-back wins for Lake City Athletic Club men's open team at this year's Red Stag Redwoods Forest Relay.

The home team turned in a dominant performances for the 34th annual event held at the weekend. Along with the open men's title, Lake City Athletic Club also picked up the women's open and masters men's title, each with convincing winning margins.

Leading out for the open men's team, Steven O'Callaghan ran the first lap in the fastest individual lap time of the day in 15m 43s, for the 5km course held within the Redwoods Grove and Scion Archives Nursery area of Whakarewarewa Forest.

Rotorua's second runner Nick Portas followed up with 16.09, with Sjors Corporaal, 16.12; Nick Pannett, 16.02; and, finally, Jason Steyn-Ross in 17.48.

O'Callaghan's team won their section by 6 minutes from Hamilton City Hawks and Egmont Athletics.

Likewise, the Rotorua club's masters men's team were one of the surprises of the day when they were third overall across the line, nearly five minutes ahead of Hamilton City Hawks masters team who finished second in their division.

Lake City Athletic Club's No 1 women's team dominated their section finishing more than 17 minutes ahead of Egmont Athletics and the Rotorua's second team.

The top performance of the event went to Egmont Athletics athlete and New Zealand under-19 cross-country and road title holder Matt Baxter.

The youngster raced around the 3.2km course in an excellent time of 9m 57s.

He took seven seconds off the previous best time set in 2009 by Napier's Eric Speakman.

Baxter's run laid the foundation for his Egmont Athletics team-mates to break the team record of 43.10 by nine seconds, set last year.

Another Egmont Athletics member, Danielle Trevis-Ingram, ran the fastest overall women's 5km time in 18m 23s, adding to her female youth record she set in 2007.

In the two-lap walk section, the Tauranga Ramblers combination of Alex Whimster and Malcolm Taylor won by 66m, 16s ahead of Taupo Harriers and Cambridge teams.