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Takahe to Akaroa Relay
National Road Relay Champs
October 6, 2001
The Napier Harrier Club returned from the National Road Relay Champs with a very creditable 4th placing in the C Grade race.
The championships were held in conjunction with the annual Takahe to Akaroa relay and attracted the biggest field since the heydays of the 70's. With 169 teams competing across the various grades, and 8 laps to the relay there were over 1300 athletes in attendance.
The team were placed 4th at the end of the first leg after a blistering downhill effort from Mark Speakman saw the team make up 4 places in the final stages of the lap. Speakman's 35:06 for the 9.6km lap being the 25th quickest recorded for this leg on the day.
Craig Mathers produced a very solid effort on the second leg to hold onto the teams 4th placing, running 38:08 for the 10.3km lap (31st fastest).
Peter Gillies was next to take the baton, with the placings changing throughout the leg. The Napier team were sitting in 5th by the end of the 10.1km leg as Gillies handed on to John Craven.
Craven then produced an exceptional effort, running the 5th fastest time (36:00) recorded by a Veteran Man for the 9.1km fourth leg to see the team gaining on the leaders, and back in fourth spot.
Kevin Fisher was entrusted with the longest lap of the relay, and although the 11.1km lap is predominantly flat, there was a very strong headwind to contend with. Fisher made big in-roads into the leading team, but his 41:37 effort was still not enough to move the team any further up the leader board.
The big attack came from Brent Jones on the 6.9km uphill 6th leg. Running a very intelligent leg, Jones produced the teams 'run of the day', running 31:48 to be the 13 fastest senior man up the hill, and lifting the team to within 10 seconds of the lead as he handed over the baton at the top of the hill.
Leo Pearce then took on the predominately downhill 9.6km 7th leg, and while losing a little time on the leaders, his 33:31 was the 22nd fastest by a senior man, and helped the team to stay in touch with the leaders.
Trailing by only 29 seconds heading into the final leg, Trevor Fulton elected not to hold position but to present an all out attack and go for the victory, and over the early stages of the 10.6km leg he produced a superb effort. Unfortunately that early pace cost him dearly over the final stages as the strength slowly left his legs and he was run down by two of the following teams.
The teams total time of 4hrs 54min 40sec for the 77.1km course represents the 23 fastest time of the teams present, a very commendable effort.
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