Round the Bridges: Collegiate take lead in Fun Run

The start of the 10km race Property Brokers 37th annual Round the Bridges event yesterday. Photo/Stuart Munro

As usual, it was various singlet colours representing the houses of Wanganui Collegiate which held sway at the front of the field during yesterdays 10km feature race of the Property Brokers 37th annual Round the Bridges event yesterday.

Part of the schools curriculum, the Collegiate teenagers compete for their houses amongst the 1700 entries for the 10km and 5km running/walking courses which loop from Kowhai Park down to the City bridge and then back up to cross Dublin bridge and return.

Money raised from entries goes to support the YMCA's Send A Kid To Camp Campaign, an initiative to send local children to the Raukawa Adventure Centre.

For the second year in a row, the 10km dash was collected by Collegiates national champion Geordie Beamish, who estimated his finishing time around the 32-34 minute mark.

The fact it was just a light Sunday morning cruise for the NZ Schools and NZ Junior distance running champion is evident as the 17-year-old Beamish confirmed that, like last year, he will just carry on with his regular afternoon training regime compared to the regular mortals who would need a lie down after their exertions.

I just keep running after this, Beamish said with a shrug.

The YMCAs Josh Payne came second, followed by Collegiate runner Luke Gemmell, who grimaced as he crossed the line in third.

Its always a battle keeping up with these young fellas and pretty hot out there too, said Payne.

Gemmell was a little disappointed that a bad case of stitch kept him from putting in a stronger challenge to Beamish.

They passed me over there, by the bridge, and I stopped. [It was] really bad.

Earlier, with around an hour showing on the race timer, the first competitor to emerge was 10km walker Gai-Marie Smart, followed a few minutes later by regular harrier competitor Damien Wood, with Colin Ward coming in third.

Both Smart and Wood had one thing to say: That was great.

There was no way I was keeping up with you. You cant have been going casual, Wood told Smart.

A short time later, Collegiates Daniel McLeod and the YMCAs Zeb Small both came sprinting to the finish for the 5km run.

While McLeod had his shoulder ahead as they crossed the line, both young men were surprised when told that and said they had not been looking to best the other.

We were going for equal, McLeod said.

I sprinted at the start and then he caught up so we just said, lets finish together, said Small.

Wanganui High Schools Ryan Gray came in third.