All the way walk win for Zwart at Games

10km road walk

By John Maslinjohn.maslin@wanganuichronicle.co.nz

Palmerston North's Peter Zwart showed everyone a clean pair of heels in the 10km road walk yesterday, scampering around over the two-lap course that took in the Dublin St and City bridges.

The 63-year-old Dutchman has lived in New Zealand longer than he did in his place of birth and once was a keen runner and cyclist.

But these days he has turned his attention to road walking as his joints struggled to recover from the rigours of athletics and competitive biking.

Zwart was a first-timer at these NZ Masters Games but said he'd come back and do it again.

He enjoyed the course but suggested 1km markers would have been useful for the more competitive walkers who like to tick off their distances and times regularly.

He led from start to finish, which was not too bad an effort for a bloke who has been a competitive walker for only five years.

His time - 15 seconds over one hour - was quick enough but not his fastest.

"My best time is just 57 minutes so I was a bit disappointed," he said.

The race for second placing was a near run thing with Levin's Colin Horne (52) just edging Wanganui's Gai-Marie Smart (50) at the line by a second. They were 14 seconds behind race winner Zwart.

The first three finishers were well clear of the rest of the field.