Good efforts in epic event

Photo/File

A number of the Wanganui teams and individual competitors at the 32nd Speight's Coast to Coast made it a quick trip from Kumara to Christchurch on Friday and Saturday.

Angus Watson, domiciled in Christchurch as a student, improved on his Top 20 finish in his debut last year by coming ninth overall out of 120 competitors in the One Day World Championship event on Saturday.

Watson completed the 243km run, cycle, mountain run, kayak and cycle course in 12h 48m 50s , finishing around 90 minutes behind the winner, defending champion Braden Currie of Wanaka.

For the second year running, Currie upset favourite and five-time champion Richard Ussher of Nelson.

In 2013, Watson had experienced a few hiccups during the 34km running leg over Goat Pass, but this time around he completed it in 3h 35m, and in fact moved up from 12th to ninth during this section.

Hunterville's Dean Hudson showed his experience as part of a two-person team in 2013 was put to good use as he came fifth overall in the two-day individual event in a field of 169 competitors.

Hudson had a strong Friday before falling back a little bit during the quick Saturday morning cycle to the start of the kayaking leg down the Waimakariri River.

But he made up the time on the final cycling run into Christchurch, finishing in 13h 41m 09s around 52 minutes behind Cantabrian winner Brendon Vercoe.

In the two-day teams events, Ashley Christie and Josh Payne finished seventh overall out of 60 teams in the two-person category and were third in the Open Men's grade.

With Christie as the kayaker and Payne the runner, they arrived at Christchurch's Sumner Beach in 13h 52m 59s.

For the three-person teams, Matt Foster, Antony Rountree and Craig Wills came sixth overall and fifth in the Open Men's grade with a 15h 19m 34s time, against 24 other groups.

This year's Coast to Coast was the last to be overseen by its iconic founder Robin Judkins.

The 64-year-old Judkins sold the rights for the event to tourist company Trojan Holdings last year, having created the race in 1983 and running all 32 editions since.