Athletics NZ & Athletics Wellington Half Marathon Titles Decided
photos courtesy of Event organisers
New Zealand Half Marathon Championship, took place on Sunday as part of the Gazley Volkswagen Wellington event based from Sky Stadium on Sunday.
The event doubled as a Athletics Wellington Championship. Local athlete Sarah Drought [WHAC] was too strong in the Women’s race taking her first national title since winning the national road 10km title also on the Wellington waterfront back in 2012. She won by more than two minutes in a race record time of 1:15:44. She has continued her great form of this year, especially in all Wellington winter events to date. Finishing just four seconds outside her personal best Esther George [WHAC] in 1:18:03 took out the silver with Deb Fuller securing a podium placing with bronze in the NZ Championships in PB of 1:19:31. Deborah Lynch [Olympic] was third Wellington athlete home taking the Wellington Championship bronze in 1:21:13 PB. Michael Voss [Lake City] claimed his first senior national title, with a clear-cut victory over Daniel Balchin [Canterbury] in 1:06:21. Cullern Thorby [Lake City] backed up his third at the Rotorua Marathon with the bronze medal in a personal best 1:08:32 in the NZ title hunt. Meanwhile the Athletics Wellington Senior Men title was taken by equally dominant local athletes this season Seamus Kane [Scottish] with Nick Sasse [Victoria University] runner up and Daniel Clendon [WHAC] third.
Drought and Clendon claimed the local Masters 35 title too while Betty Harp and Andrew Kerr won the Masters 50 + titles
Athletics Wellington Championships Medallists
Open Women: 1 Sarah Drought 2 Esther George 3 Deborah Lynch
Open Men: 1 Seamus Kane 2 Nick Sasse 3 Daniel Clendon
W35 : 1 Sarah Drought2 Floortje Kaars 3 Lindsay Barwick
M35; 1 Daniel Clendon 2 Josh Campbell 3 Alastair Saunders
W50: 1 Betty Harp 2 Victoria Humphries 3 Christina Needham
M50: 1 Andrew Kerr2 Grant McLean3 Graeme Morrison
Leading WELLINGTON Gazley Volkswagen Marathon Results
Men: Kaito Iwasa (Japan) 2:28:20, Dougal Thorburn 2:29:06, David Haunschmidt 2:30:54.
Women: Ingrid Cree 2:48:19 PB, Gabriela Diver 3:02:55, Angela Hancock 3:08:41.
Walk: Graeme Tindall 4:58:34, David Jones 5:05:58, Jenny Cheevers 5:15:45.
Half marathon walk: Eric Kemsley 2:21:46, Sarah Rankin 2:28:28, Chris Paice 2:28:28.
10km Men : Simon Cromarty 32:02, Hirotaka Tanimoto 32:07, Tom Strawbridge 32:23
10km Women: Genevieve Coffey 37:49, Mackenzie Morgan 38:12 PB, Sarah Murphy 38:41
10km Walk: Men: Lucas Martin 47:04 PB, Peter Fox 1:02:37, Clive McGovern 1:03:08. Women:Serena Coombes 1:04:36, Jacqueline Wilson 1:09:16, Sharon Wright 1:10:25.
Full results available here https://results.timingsports.com/wellingtonmarathon/2023/
