Dominant displays continue for Drought and Kane at Wellington Cross Country Championships.
photos Courtesy Rowan Greig
Sarah Drought [WHAC] and Seamus Kane [Scottish] continued their excellent winter form to command comfortable wins in their races to secure Wellington titles and likely the Winter Series titles too. Sunday’s races had a revamped shorter programme which meant the event started at 11.00am and all medals presented by 1.00pm making for a sharper programme. The traditional 10km races were reduced to 8km with multiple grades making for competitive fields over the 1km, 2km, 4km and 8km distances. The course held on Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt was still very soft and muddy underfoot in many places due to a number of events and winter weather impact but the weather prevailed to remain fine.
Other notable and clear wins went to Olympic club mates Max Doherty and Amy McHardy winning M18 and W18 races respectively. McHardy home in the holiday break in the enjoye dthe race. Both athletes were recently selected in the NZL Secondary Schools team to travel to the AUS Championship this August in Canberra. Dan Clendon [WHAC] coming in 9th overall in the 8km race took the M35 division and Peter Stevens [Scottish] 28th took the M50 division. Natalie Hardaker [WHAC] was a clear winner in W35 over 8km. Lorcan Rabbitte [Victoria Uni.] took the M20 race with a strong performance of 5th overall in the 8km just one place behind clubmate first year senior Max Taylor. The prized Teams Shield race in Open Men’s for top six finishers was won by Scottish on 57 points, 10 points ahead of very well performed Victoria University team who looked to make a serious challenge with some impressive team racing during the race.
In the 4km races top runs by U16 Olympic runners Juliet Moorhead and Logan Hopfler winning their divisions. Heather Walker [Scottish] was again very dominant in the W60 division as was Graeme Butcher [Athletics & Cycling Masterton] in the M60 with team mate Tony Price taking the M65.
Leading Results
Women
Senior 8km Sarah Drought 28:04, Maia Flint 30:23, Deborah Lynch 30:49.
Masters 8km Natalie Hardaker 34:22, Sally McGrandle 35:26, Emily Solsberg 37:07.
U18 4km Amy McHardy 14:43, Poppy Healy 14:55, Jessica Mckenzie 15:21.
U16 4km Juliet Moorhead 14:54.
U14 2km Zoe Hilton 7:07.
U12 2km Lucie Thomson 7:51
U101kmEmily Broster 4:16
Men
Senior 8km Seamus Kane 25:48, Daniel Jones 26:00, Niam Macdonald-Joslin 26:18.
Masters 8km Daniel Clendon 26:42, Josh Campbell 27:50, Rowan Hooper 28:03.
U20 8km Lorcan Rabbitte 26:36, Josh Jordan 26:40, Ryan Mackay 28:15.
U18 4km Max Doherty 12:40, Max Poland 12:51, Connor Kemp 13:00.
U16 4km Logan Hopfler 13:31.
U14 2km Jacob Williams 6:22.
U12 2km Ovin Angammana 7:13
U10 1km Cooper Williams 3:56
Full Results HERE
