Season opens with tight team battles

SPRINT START: The women's runners begin their race in sunny weather at the Wanganui Harrier Club's annual Anzac Day Cross-country relays on Saturday.PHOTO/SUPPLIED 250415WCSUP02

The local cross-country season got under way with a good turnout of 230 runners and walkers for the Wanganui Harrier Club's annual Anzac Day relays at Lake Wiritoa on Saturday.

The action started in warm conditions at 12.30pm with the walkers who competed in pairs and the children's runners departing from the Scoutlands campsite.

"A successful day held at a popular venue which lends itself to a challenging cross country course, while allowing spectators a number of positions to view the action," said Harriers spokesman Bill Charnock.

Wanganui's Damien Wood and Peter Monrad won the two-person walk race, with Charnock and Kate Quigley just holding off the fast-finishing pairing of Hamish Wood and Paula Goudie for second.

A 10-strong field of Under 9s, raced over 1km.

Hunter Kennedy from Feilding Moa took line honours, 20 seconds ahead of Wanganui Harriers' Alex Palazzo, with the same gap to fellow Feilding Moa youngster Layla Duker.

There were 14 entries for the Under 12s race over 2km, as Moa siblings Nelson and Fergus Doolan came first and third respectively, with Harrier's Tadhg O'Connor second. Less than a minute covered the first three.

A very impressive turnout of 24 women's teams lined up for the 4x2km run, a huge increase on recent years.

By the end of the first lap there was just 22 seconds between the top five teams of Wanganui Collegiate A, Feilding Moa A, Palmerston North A, Collegiate B, and Wanganui Harriers A.

The order had shuffled by the halfway point with Palmerston North A overtaking Moa A for second, as Collegiate's gap back to the Harriers in fifth was now 44 seconds.

At the final change, Palmerston North A overtook Collegiate A, while Moa A held third place with Palmerston North B climbing to fourth ahead of Wanganui Harriers.

It was an exciting final leg as the Collegiate A runner slowly but surely closed the gap on Palmerston North, but ran out of race track to miss out by only two seconds.

Palmerston North B would pass both Moa A and Wanganui A to snatch third, while teams from Hawera Harriers, Egmont Harriers and St Georges School completed the field.

There was another 24 teams for the start of the men's 4x2km race, but it was less of a contest as a strong Palmerston North A team lead from start to finish and increased their advantage at every changeover.

The battle behind them for the minor placings saw Wanganui Collegiate only two seconds back at the end of lap 1, with Moa A a further 18 seconds behind, then the Palmerston North B and C teams rounding out the top five.

Lap 2 saw Palmerston North A pull away, 30 seconds ahead of Palmerston North B as Collegiate dropped to third followed by Hawera and Moa A.

The B team had closed the gap slightly on the A squad to 22 seconds in Lap 3, followed by Collegiate, Wanganui Harriers and Hawera.

But Palmerston North A kicked on in the final lap, eventually winning by a minute and 55 seconds over their B team, with Collegiate third, another 16 seconds back.

Results

Open Scratch: 1. John Quigley (WHC) 9.34; 2. John Bryant (WHC).

Walker Two Person: 1. WHC (Damien Wood, Pete Monrad) 25.54; 2. WHC (Kate Quigley, Bill Charnock); 3. WHC (Hamish Wood, Paula Goudie).

Under 9, 1km: 1. Hunter Kennedy (Moa) 4.26; 2. Alex Palazzo (WHC); 3. Layla Duker (Moa).

Under 12, 2km: 1. Nelson Doolan (Moa) 8.11; 2. Tadhg O'Connor (WHC); 3. Fergus Doolan (Moa).

Women's Relay: 1. PNAHC A (Caelan Allen, Frances Allen, Zia McDermid, Kara McDermid) 31.11; 2. WCS (Megan Mackay, Jazmin Phillips, Sophie Collins, Alice Bird); 3. PNAHC B (Ashleigh Gunn, Vanessa Story, Jharna Melbourne, Diana Solis).

Men's Relay: 1. PNAHC A (Jake Jackson Grammer, Harrison Porritt, Andrew Davenport, Chris Sanson) 25.09; 2. PNAHC B (Adam Fairclough, Callum McConachy, Paul MacDermid, Noah MacDermid); 3. WCS (Christian Conder, Thomas Conder, Louis Hogan, Luke Gemmell).