Running
amok
ADF athletes out-pace the competition
in NZ
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Australian
Sub-Leut Rowan Walker challenges New Zealand’s LAC
Kim Hogarth for the lead in the eight-kilometre road race.
Photo provided by Sgt Rob Combe
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By
Sgt Rob Combe
A GROUP of 21 ADF athletes has scored highly against New Zealand’s
best military and civilian runners in the NZ National Road Relay
Championship.
The tour began on the North Island, where three teams of seven
runners – Men’s Open, Women’s Open and Men’s
Veteran, raced against the NZ Air Force in an eight-kilometre
road race, held in some of New Zealand’s finest weather conditions.
In the ladies race, Cpl Stephanie Hall, AAB-Sydney, showed her
class, winning by nearly two minutes ahead of NZ defence civilian
Sue Marfell, with Darwin’s Lt Kelly McFarlane third.
The side easily accounted for a top result in the team event,
filling seven out of the top 10 spots.
In the men’s race it was going to be tough for our guys to
take individual honours, with LAC Kim Hogarth, the NZ national
three-kilometre steeplechase champion, lining up.
Sub-Leut Rowan Walker took the race right up to LAC Hogarth, but
in the end he was too strong and pulled away to take the win.
Flt-Lt Richard Gardiner ran a well-judged race to take third.
In the Vets, ADF civilian Richard McQuire-White took the honours
ahead of NZ Flt-Lt Kelvin Read.
The fact that the Kiwi teams were from only one service meant
that the ADF athletes had a distinct advantage in depth, and emphatically
won both team events.
The second race was conducted on the South Island near Nelson,
where ADF teams were pitted against some of the best distance
runners in the land, making up 138 teams in the event.
In what was a tough day out for all concerned, the men’s
open team managed to take out second place in B Grade, with the
Vets and Women’s teams putting in creditable performances,
despite not featuring in the placings.
The ADF teams would like to acknowledge the support of Flt-Lt
Kelvin Read (NZAF) and Defcredit who supplied some of the uniforms
for the tour.
