Veteran Beats Younsters & Weather

Veteran Beats Younsters & Weather

Napier’s Ross McIntyre proved that experience can still triumph over youth when he won the Armstrong Motor Group Wellington Marathon in Wellington today.

Almost 4500 runners and walkers from 11 countries lined up in challenging conditions for the 26th running of Wellington’s premier marathon event. Among them was deputy Prime Minster Bill English and his wife Mary, who took the mantra of “families that play together” all the way to the finish of the classic 42.2k challenge, finishing in 4hrs 58min.

Ross McIntyre wasn’t in Wellington to run with anyone. The Havelock North house dad has been the country’s best performed veteran marathoners in recent years. But in Wellington the 46 year old took a shot at overall honours.

McIntyre came into the race as co-favourite with Christchurch’s Glynn Hadley. In 2010 Hadley had been seventh in the Armstrong Motor Group Half Marathon distance and had the fastest best time in the field of 2hrs 32min. Hadley tried to take the race to McIntyre, but the experienced Hawkes Bay runner ran a patient race and eventually came away the winner over the final 5k, crossing the Westpac Stadium finish line 57secs ahead of Hadley in 2hrs 38min 09secs.

Race day in Wellington dawned wet with a northerly breeze. But both wind and rain increased to make for difficult conditions. That made Victoria Jackson’s full marathon win even more impressive, because as well as winning by almost 13min she came up just a few minutes shy of the race record.

The 30 year old Wellingtonian was a last minute entrant, but despite conditions missed the race record by just 2min 40secs to win in 3hrs 03min 37secs. Behind her Christchurch’s Annabelle Bramwell clocked in at 3hrs 16min 15secs to hold out Auckland’s Dominique Hopkinson by 2min.

The half marathon races produced much closer racing as just 1min separated the first three men and first four women. The woman’s race produced one of the most impressive performances when Upper Hutt’s old Sarah Gardener improved from third last year to claim the top spot.

Despite tough conditions the 26 year old ran almost exactly the same time as a year ago, winning by 1min 44secs in 1hr 23min 25secs. Behind her less than 90secs separated Lower Hutt’s Rebecca Keat and Wellingtonians Sarah Christie and Charlotte Wood.

The men’s Half Marathon produced the days closest race when Wellington’s Evan Cooper and Canadian visitor James Richardson went head to head until the final few kilometres when Cooper applied pressure that eventually saw him win by just 10secs in 1hr 13min 14secs.

In other races Wellingtonians Tim Hodge and Gabrielle O’Rourke dominated the 10k event, with Hodge beating Wellington-based American Cary Chaffee by 31secs in 33min 08secs. O’Rourke, 43, was pressured early on by youngster Sarah Drought but came home with a 19sec advantage in 37min 05secs.

The Kids’ Magic Mile was won by Upper Hutt’s Nikolai Allen, but the highlight was a down to the wire battle between Wellington’s Ruby Le and Paraparaumu’s Michaela Walker, with just 2secs between them at the line as they claimed third and fourth overall.

Further back in the field, but ahead of our Deputy Prime Minister, Christchurch’s Irena Szalkowlski-Hayes bought the house down when the 55 year old shrugged off Christchurch’s major tremor last Monday, where she fled her workplace as it crumbled around her and then drove her car into a sink hole on the way home, to finish the Armstrong Motor Group Wellington Marathon in 3hrs 40min 42secs to win her 50-59 grade by just five seconds.

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