Fleetfooted hunter

When Billy Hebberd won two legs of last Saturday's annual Queen Charlotte relay running event from Picton to Havelock, nobody who knew him or about him was surprised.

Billy easily won the first leg from Picton up the long hill to Wedge Point and the fifth and final leg from Moenui to Havelock.

He began running competitively at Queen Charlotte College, but it's when he began working at the former PPCS freezing works at Riverlands that his ability to run at speed up hills came to the fore.

Staff at the works contested the annual Prince of the Pylons race, a gruelling short but sharp dash up the steep hill and return, a distance of about 2.5 kilometres.

Billy said it was so steep only about three of them could run up there.

"It was really entertaining. About 300 staff watching, yelling.

"My best time was 10:45. I trained pretty hard for that one. I was told by the boss if I broke the record I could have the rest of the day off."

Billy's father worked at the freezing works for 46 years at Picton and at PPCS and tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 65, a week after being made redundant.

The two events Billy has dominated over the years, King of the Withers and the Hopai Sports Day, both require a combination of speed and strength.

Billy has won the sports day title four years in a row with his sister Joy Hebberd and David King, and he has also won it solo.

The event includes a run and swim.

In 1999 he won the King of the Withers race in tramping boots, an event he has now won three times. He is the current champion.

Billy has won the Molesworth Run team title four times and the Mt Lyford Challenge, one of the hardest half marathon races in New Zealand.

He has done numerous other half marathons but enjoys the hills more – certainly no surprise, given his background.

Billy is a full-time possum trapper, and this week spent several days hunting them up the Awatere Valley.

He has enjoyed a lifetime of hunting, having learnt from his late father.

He grew up on the family farm in Onahau Bay in the Grove Arm and the farm is still there on the boundary of the Queen Charlotte Track.

Recalling those days, Billy said, the Sounds were a big playground.

"I've always hunted and fished."

While he doesn't do a lot of specific running training, Billy's job roaming the hills, working and hunting, provides a superb fitness base.

"The hunting accounts for the strength. I do a little speed work.

"Carrying out deer and pigs and possums makes you very strong on the hills.

"Pretty much power walking all day on the hills."

The Hebberd hunting and running legend is in safe hands.

Billy's two sons Dylan, 11, and Blake, 4, already hunt and fish and excel at athletics.

When Billy's not hunting, fishing or running, he enjoys table tennis, playing in the Marlborough senior competition, and playing touch for the Cronies team.

If he ever decided to get serious about training for running, goodness knows what he could achieve.

Billy Hebberd. Take him on in a hill race at your peril.

- The Marlborough Express