Blustery conditions and a weakened Hastings Harriers United team provided for one of the most exciting finishes in many years at the annual Hawkes Bay/Gisborne Road Relays held on Saturday afternoon.

The Napier Harrier Club's senior men came agonisingly close to capturing the title that has now eluded them for more than 5 years, finishing just 40 seconds behind their Hastings counterparts after a gruelling 37km of racing.

The Hastings team got off to a good start with young Neville Smith running a very good first leg from Taradale out to Puketapu directly into the strong wind all the way, finishing the leg 29 seconds ahead of Napier's John Hambleton. But by the end of the second leg Napier's Craig Mathers had given his team a 32 second lead as he caught and passed past Hastings' Michael Newton.

However Napier's lead was short lived as Hastings played their ace card in NZ Cross Country rep Mathew Holder. Holder showed his class as he simply powered passed Napier's Chris Corney to give his Hastings team a massive 2 minutes 7 second lead at the top of the 6.7km uphill Appley Road leg.

At this stage it looked all over for the Napier team, but with Darryl Strachan pulling back 53 seconds from Mike Flemming on the fourth leg the Hastings lead had been cut to 1min 14sec. Mark Speakman then ran a superb 5th leg to take another min out of the Hastings lead running against Callum Millward, and suddenly the Napier team was right back in the race, just 14 seconds behind Hastings with their number 1, Peter Handcock still to run.

But it was not to be for the Napier Club as Hastings Josh Barber ran and excellently judged final leg to slowly pull away and give Hastings the victory by 40 seconds at the line.

The womens race was a much more clear cut affair with the Hastings club taking away the double for the day.

They did not have it all their own way however. Hastings' Claire Burnard gave them the early lead on the first leg, but Napier Junior Laura Smidt, running for the Napier 'B' team, upset both the Hastings and Napier 'A' teams to give her team a 1min 37sec lead at the end of the second leg.

Hastings' Wendy Andrews then re-established her teams lead running up Appley Road 1min 30sec quicker then any one else to give her team 1min 40sec lead at the changeover.

The fourth leg turned out to be another upset as Napier 'B' runner Sonya Clark set fastest time, but Amber Morrison had extended the lead of the Hastings lead over the Napier 'A' team to 4min 49 by the changeover.

Jill Parker then made major in roads into the Hastings lead on the fifth leg, running 2 min 40sec quicker than Hastings' junior, Hayley Sherborne to get the Napier team back to just 2min 9sec behind, but Andrea Williams then ran the fastest time for the last leg, giving her Hastings Club a lead of 8 min 33 sec at the finish.

The Hastings club made it a triple for the day as their junior team also won the short course fun relay held around the shorter Puketapu circuit. The team consisted of Ben Barry, Sarah Morton, Ben Biss, Sasha Murray and David Morton.

The only event the Hastings club did not win was the Fun Walk held over the same 37km course as the main run. The Hawkes Bay Marathon Clinic walk team of Bob Fairley, Helen Helyer, John Holschier, Olive deRidder and Robyn Wofsbauer, won that event.

Despite the difficult conditions the 120 athletes who took part all thoroughly enjoyed the day.