Southland Harriers eNewsletter

Tuatara Teretonga Ten K

Southland Road Champs

52 Runners Participated In This Event

10 Volunteers Assisted In The Set Up And Running Of The Event

The only sounds coming from the Teratonga Park on Saturdays, was the sound of 104 feet pounding the pavement, and the rowdy cheers of families and supporters .

This year the Southland Road Champs was held at the Teratonga Park, on a sweltering 18 degree day with a light head wind around the back curves and tail wind down the front straight. It was the inaugural year for the event being held at Teretonga Park, a safe, fast and challenging course for all participants.

A very creative Facebook campaign, the brainchild of committee volunteer Ian Densie meant we welcomed twenty two non-club runners for 1, 2 or 4 loops around the track. It was the highlight of the day to see new faces, and new families join us for this event. We actively promote Southland Harriers as a great sporting option for families as all of our events cater for runners from four to eight-four.

So thank you to everyone who joined us. The men's 10km race was exciting and fast with plenty of the field running sub 40minutes for the distance. We hope that some of the open runners will take up the opportunity to join us for more Harrier events next year.

All runners took off from their 2.5km, 5k, and 10km start line at at the sound of long car horn and towards the end of the first lap it was fantastic to look back and see so many runners spread around the course. By this time some the quick 5km and 2.5kms runners were already starting to run past a few 10km participants.

The consensus from the most of the 10km runners was that by the 3rd lap around the track things were getting tough. It was an unexpectedly hot day, and all of us were well outside of our comfort zone, coming out of the cool Southland winter.

The pace set by Dwight Grieve and Bailey Powell was outstanding to watch. Neck and neck for almost the full 10kms, Dwight (Fiordland) pushed hard over the last 1.5km to take 1st place in a time of 32:58 , 12 seconds in front of Bailey (Open). Craig Iversen (Leith) was the 3rd male across the finish line.

Kimberley Iversen (Leith) was the standout female performance easily outrunning the rest of the pack, finishing in a time of 38:47minutes, Nicole Jackson (Invercargill) was second female and Jackie Blay (St.Pauls) 3rd.

Over 5kms Cayden Sanginiti (St.Pauls) was the first male in a time of 18:20, followed closely by Hunter Flowers (St. Pauls), 7 seconds later, in third Logan Jordan (Open). The first female was Charlotte Hawke (St.Pauls) in a time of 20:33, second Debbie Telfer (Invercargill) and third Freya Gilmour (Open).

For our juniors who ran 2.5km outstanding job, it was a hot day, and I hope it was fun chasing everyone down. CJ Iverson (Invercargill) was the first male across the line in a time of 8:31, followed a minute and one second later by his younger brother Sean Iverson (Invercargill), Kye AhKuoi (St.Pauls) was third.

The first female Laykn AhKuoi (St. Pauls) ran a blistering time of 11:05, followed by Stella Collard (St. Pauls) one minute later in second, and Mahli AhKuoi (St. Pauls) placed third.

Thank you to all the volunteers and supporters who helped out on the day, there was a few learnings but overall the feedback from participants and volunteers has been good. I hope none of you were sporting sunburns on Sunday.

Thanks to the Tuatara Cafe who came on as a sponsor for our first year. The celebratory, pizza, hot chips, beer and fizzy drinks at prize giving was the perfect ending to a fantastic day of running for the Southland Harriers.

Full results, follow this link: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=364137