Hawkes Bay athletes performed well at Wellington's prestigious Dorne Cup Cross Country Races held on Saturday, coming away with 2 silvers and a bronze medal.

Napier Harrier's Laura Smidt, who last year won the Under 14 grade, stepped up to the under 16 grade this year and came home with the silver medal. Smidt was doubling up from a win the HB Secondary Schools Cross Country held in Gisborne on Tuesday and is now looking ahead with confidence to the NZ Secondary Schools Cross Country Champs which will be held in Blenheim this weekend.

The second medal for the Bay came from Hastings Harriers Michael Newton. Newton was up against stiff competition from Wellington schoolboy sensation Nick Willis in the same grade and New Zealand Junior Cross Country Rep Mathew Prosser, racing in the same race but in the under 18 grade. Newton finished the race in fourth place overall behind Willis, Prosser and one other under 18 athlete, to take the silver medal in his Men under 20 grade.

The third medal for the Hawkes Bay contingent came for NZ Cross Country Rep Mathew Holder who, despite suffering from a heavy head cold the week before, captured the bronze medal in the Senior Men's race. While Holder, running for the Hastings Harriers United club, was not happy with his performance on the day, conceded that the result was a good one, all things considered, but was disappointed to be so far adrift of Manchester bound 10000m runner John Henwood.

Held in near perfect conditions on Upper Hutt's Trentham Memorial Park, the annual competition is seen as second only to the Wellington Provincial Champs as an indicator of the local running scene, and as such sees the 'who's who' of Wellington running turn out.

Napier Harrier Darryl Strachan got the bay off to a good start in the second event on the program running an excellently judged race to finish 5th in the Veteran Men's event held over 8km, and was followed home in 9th place by club-mate John Hambleton. Another runner hailing from the bay, Chris Speakman, running for Wellington Olympic, finished 11th in the same event.

The Napier Harriers Boy's Under16 team are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the teams� title calculations. Unofficially they have taken the bronze medal but will have to wait for this to be confirmed. Wellington Scottish seem certain to have taken the gold, placing athletes in 1,2,3 and 8th places for a total of 14 points, but the race for the silver and bronze is much closer with previsional results placing Wellington Olympic on 62 points to Napier�s 65. Stefan Smith led the team home finishing 6th in a very strong field with Rory Diver 16th, Hayden Schofer 17th and Andre Smith 26th.

The Bay's sole representative in the Women's Under 18 event, Napier's Sonja Clark ran strongly to finish 6th in her combined Under 18/20 event, with club-mate Kane Green finishing a commendable 10th in the equivalent Junior Men�s race.

Others to perform well on the day were Napier's Under 12 Boys Brendan Speakman (6th) and Tyler Hambleton (26th), both racing above their ages and placing well in their race, while club-mate Hogan Green finished as 5th under 14 boy in the same race.

Hastings' Andrea Williams ran strongly as the bays only rep in the Senior Women's race (predictably won by World Mountain Running Champ Melissa Moon), finishing in 9th place.

Napier athletes Cheryl Simpson (14th) Adele Marsh (17th) and Sheila Smidt (21st) represented the Bay well in the Vet Women's race.

Hastings Josh Barber was the second Bay athlete to finish in the Senior Men's race, placing 12th followed by Napier�s Craig Mathers (22nd), Mark Speakman (32nd), and Mike Signal (40th) with Barber's club-mate Mike Flemming (56th) the last of the Bay runners to finish, all well up the field of 90 finishers.

The highlight of the day was the multiple victories of the Napier Speakman�s (or is that Speakmen) over their Wellington counter parts. Brendan Speakman comprehensively beat older cousin Travis in the under 12/14 race, while Dad (Mark) generously slowed on the last lap to ensure he didn�t beat his older brothers time from the veteran men�s race by too much (I don�t like to embarrass the old boy)