Athletics: Uchino and Gibbs conquer Rotorua's hills

Masataka Uchino from Japan crosses the finish line at the Rotorua Marathon. Photo / Macspeed

Masataka Uchino from Japan and 50-year-old Sally Gibbs from Tauranga were the overall winners of the 50th Rotorua Marathon yesterday.

Uchino sat back in the leading bunch for the first half of the race behind early leader Steven O'Callaghan from Rotorua.

Tony Payne went to the lead at the halfway stage and applied pressure over the renowned hills of the Rotorua course. His lead grew to about 100m before Uchino and three-time previous winner Phil Costley from Nelson started reeling him in.

Uchino (34), from Tokyo, and Costley (44) caught and passed the Auckland runner and ran side by side until there was less than 10km remaining.

Then the Japanese runner started increasing the pace and went on to win in 2h 27m 24s from Costley in 2h 29m 47s, with Payne a further minute back. Costley, as the first Kiwi to finish, won the New Zealand marathon championship from Payne, with local hero O'Callaghan finishing fourth and taking third in the championships.

Costley's gold was his 32nd New Zealand title.

Sally Gibbs got out to an early lead in the women's race and was never headed. Auckland jockey Lisa Robertson led the chase in the early stages but was overtaken by Gibbs' clubmate Jessica Ruthe just after the halfway mark.

The amazing Tauranga 50-year-old got out to a four minute lead at one stage and it wasn't until the final stages of the race that Ruthe made any inroads. Katie Kemp came through for third to complete the top three finishers and national championship medallists.

Gibbs said before the race that she wanted to do well in the 50th Rotorua Marathon, having represented New Zealand at mountain running and won multiple world masters titles.

More than 9,000 runners took part in the events on the day.