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Timaru Round the Gorges Relay

23rd Timaru Round the Gorges Relay Sat 19th September
 
Traditionaly UC has performed exceptionally well on this course. 2007 was the year that the Mens A team won NRR and Senior Women were 3rd. We hold the course record for the SM in a time of 3hours 31mins and 6s and many individual records.
 
This year we are entered 3 teams which were evenly matched. This race was a key selection race for NRR in a couple of weeks time.  As you can see from the results the Gold and Maroon team were close the whole way. UC took the majority of the fastest lap times in all legs with Alex Williams smashing her preexisting record for lap two by 45s.


Photos From Timaru

UC Teams and Results 

UC Gold  2nd A Grade 4:05:48        
Rowan Hooper             26:53 1:46:53 1  SM 1               

Malcolm Cornelius      32:20 2:19:13 1  MM 4               

Craig Motley               29:40 2:48:53 1  MM 4               

Rob Creasy                 38:50 3:27:43 2  SM 3                 

George Hooper          26:44 3:54:27 2  M50 5                

Thomas Holmes         27:12 4:21:39 1  M19 1              

Michael Bond            34:58 4:56:37 3  M50 12             

Angus Taylor             29:11 5:25:48 2  SM 2                 

 
UC Maroon 3rd A Grade 4:06:14      
Andrew Davidson     29:49 1:49:49 3  SM 3                 

Alex Williams              31:14 2:21:03 1  SW 3                

Ben Bamford             27:07 2:48:10 2  SM 2                 

Simon Gannaway      0:39:28 3:27:38 1  jm 5               

Andrew Woodward     27:54 3:55:32 2  MM 7                

Dave King                 29:28 4:25:00 1  SM 5                 

Sarah McSweeney    32:54 4:57:54 1  W19 5                

Richard Olsen           28:20 5:26:14 1  SM 1                 

.

 
UC Black    1st in C Grade 4:37:19  

        Ashleigh Hall       37:18 1:17:18 1  W19 15       

Christian Ruegg           34:06 1:51:24 2  SM 10        

Rose Pearson              32:15 2:23:39 1  SW 10         

Peter Stribling         0:49:48 3:13:27 4  M50 16       

Audra Hansard          30:38 3:44:05 1  SW 11          

Richard Fernando     28:51 4:12:56 2  M19 2          

Julieana Findlay      34:19 4:47:15 1  MW 10          

Thijs Hubber             30:04 5:17:19 3  SM       3     


 

For more information about the race go to www.roundthegorges.co.nz  which includes course maps lap desciptions and results and records.

The 23rd Timaru Round the Gorges Relay - Maroon team report

On Saturday the 19th of September a whole bunch of us University of Canterbury athletes woke to a glorious morning with the promise of a whole lot of running, cheering, chatting and just plain good fun as we headed to Timaru for the annual Round the Gorges Relay. Meeting at Motley’s we sorted out who was going with what ten buck taxi and then we were off. The maroon & gold teams were evenly matched, but we were quietly confident that maroon had the upper hand with Daves training progress, Alex’s determination to beat her own lap 2 record, Bamo’s ability to “rip it up” on the hills, my “never quit” philosophy, Andrew’s experience, Stefan’s “have a go” attitude, Sarah’s calm race temperament and Richie’s flaming hot pace for the glory lap.

Bang!! Went the gun and off was Kingi from the all weather track, along with Hooper and Marc from the New Brighton “All Stars”. Dave ran a decent 1st lap with 29:49 over the hilly 8.4Km. Next it was Alex’s turn and she took off like a rocket to catch Malcolm and that goal of beating her record... and she did! Running a superb 31:14mins for 8.3Km beating her previous record by 55s. She handed the baton to Ben the “hill specialist”, now I know why they call him that. He smoked past Craig and through the Pareora gorge so fast that when he got to the end of his lap he found nobody waiting for him. There was Simon Gannaway in his track pants still doing his warm-up! 46 seconds later, his costly mistake was irreversible, everyone’s previous hard work was ruined, although he had a good tussle with Rob Creasy (note to inexperienced road relay runners: getting to your change over early is more important than a good warm-up!!). Now we had no chance of catching the New Brighton all stars and the gold team could feel the tables turning. Andrew ran well over the 6 Km 5th Lap and Stefan ran his longest race ever looking comfortable with the 7.7Km. Sarah’s 7.6 Km went fast; with a bit of encouragement from the boys in the Hilux she emulated Bamo’s performance earlier up the steep hill making it look easy in 32:54. Finally it was the glory lap for Richie Olsen. He “ripped it up” the whole way chasing gold teams Gussy Taylor over the 9.3Km. In the finish Richie and Gus were on the athletics track together a mere 26s in it, a win to New Brighton by 3 ½ minutes and a UC club win for team gold (those in the maroon team who hate losing blamed Simon severely). 

So it was a hard fought 65.2 Km some tough lessons learnt, some good yarns spun and good times all round the gorges as predicted. The day was finished off at The Timaru Town & Country Club with some refreshments and some of Craig’s wife’s beautiful fudge slice before heading home in time to watch the rugby. Can’t wait for Nationals!!

By Simon Gannaway (Maroon Team)                              

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