Marcus Roy holds off challenge at Motatapu

Invercargill's Marcus Roy added a fifth Motatapu mountainbiking title to his resume on Saturday.

The former New Zealand representative held off the challenge of impressive 15-year-old Anton Cooper, from Christchurch, and fell just 8sec short of his 2008 race record.

"Cooper was faster than me on the hills but I finally got ahead on the last of the river crossings," said Roy, who finished in 1hr 57min 55sec.

"I think my longer legs were helpful."

Christchurch's Kate Sydney was the first woman home in 2:38.52.

In the off-road marathon, former New Zealand mountain running representative Gus Bell won the men's race in 3:4.3. It was an impressive Motatapu debut for the Aucklander, who is returning to the running scene after a two-year injury-enforced layoff.

"Conditions were pretty cool at the start and I decided to take off to keep warm," Bell said.

"I ended up running on my own the entire way, which in that landscape is kind of cool."

Christchuch's Alexandra Williams won the women's race in 3:25.31.

Locals Darren Blackhurst (Arrowtown) and Chris Dagg (Queenstown) won the inaugural two-man adventure race.

The course was run over a 49km track, which includes climbs totalling 2790m and usually takes three to four days to walk.

Blackhurst and Dagg covered the distance in 7:24.6.

The other new event, which attracted a field of 390 runners, was the 15km Miner's Trail, an off-road loop course from Arrowtown into the high country of the Glencoe station.

Dunedin's Louisa Andrew demolished the women's field with a time of 1:30.46 to finish second overall behind Graham Harris (1:25.28).

- © Fairfax NZ News

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