Kennedy claims 8th Molesworth relay title

Marlborough's John Kennedy continued his record in the annual Molesworth Run harrier event on Saturday.

Kennedy took out his eighth title and sixth in succession in the four-person relay section contested over a gruelling 84-kilometre course from the start at Molesworth Cottage to the finish line at Hanmer Springs.

Two of Kennedy's teammates, Ian Thomas and Billy Hebberd, have also been in the winning team for the past three years, while Jeremy McKenzie was the fourth member of Saturday's awesome foursome.

Held in ideal fine conditions, the Rose Rascals combination certainly didn't have it all their own way in the early stages. Gavin Spiers from Woodbourne scorched over the first 21km stage to lead the field by six minutes, clocking 1hr 17min 17sec.

McKenzie finished third at 1:25.32, and Adam Gausel second at 1:24.11.

Kennedy gradually made up ground on leg two and midway through his 22km leg, took the lead and his team pulled away to win by a margin of more than 50 minutes.

Kennedy clocked 1:24.35. Hebberd continued the momentum, covering his 21km in 1:25.36 and Thomas applied the finishing touches with a superb 1:18.53 for the final 21km leg into Hanmer Springs.

Their overall time was 5:34.36, while second-placed team The Mob, comprising Spiers, David Walters, Allister Leach and Duanne Morrison, clocked 6:25.45. Third place overall and mixed-team winner was the Hikki Tikki combination of Darryl Joyce, Nigel Kirk, Grant Harris and Sophie Lee, with a time of 6:26.39.

The North Canterbury combination of Malcolm Collie, Nigel Anderson, Ron Lemm and Merv Butt took out the veteran men's title in 7:03.03, while the all-Marlborough quartet of Michelle Hulland, Nicky Cameron Dunn, Anna Young and Willi Borst took out the veteran women's title in 7:27.31.

In the solo event, Brent Harris slogged over the entire 84km in 7:29.13, a superb effort ahead of a strong challenge from runner-up Paul Staples, whose time was 7:41.55.

Marlborough dental surgeon Uwe Paschke, who featured in Friday's race preview in The Marlborough Express, accomplished his mission by completing the 84km solo race in fifth place in a time of 8:34.53.

Matt Pepler and Dion Freeman, under the Freeman's Flyers banner, took out the two-person relay section in 6:37.20 with the MacCambo team of Madeline McIntosh and Richard McIntosh second in 7:51.36, each runner completing just over a full marathon.

Race organising spokesman for the Marlborough Harrier Club, Maurice Brown said afterwards he was delighted the event went off without a hitch and, apart from the obvious battering the dusty, rough high-altitude terrain took on the runners' bodies, there were no significant injuries among the 232-strong field.

- The Marlborough Express