1950 beat the feet in annual walk run

Almost 2000 keen runners and walkers lined up for the annual Chilltech Beach2Basin Run/Walk yesterday - to the delight of organisers.

The Beach2Basin features a 5.7km (starting outside the Onerahi Tavern) and a 9km event, which starts near the Onerahi Yacht Club. Both distances finish at the Town Basin.

First man home in the 9km event was Whangarei's Harry Lindford with a time of 34m 38 sec. He was followed by Mike Gowing, 35m 05sec and Jeremy Browne, 35m 41sec, both of Whangarei.

Whangarei's Ady McKenzie, who has won the event for several years in a row, was the first woman home with a time of 36m 21sec while Carolyn Younger, of Whangarei, finished two seconds behind her.

Sport Northland's Colleen Atchison said 1950 people took part in the run/walk event which was on par with previous years.

"Conditions were beautiful," she said. Many of the particpants had come from local schools, with 300 alone coming from Kamo Intermediate.

The Beach2Basin is the first event in the annual Sport Northland Run/Walk series which builds up to the Kerikeri half marathon. The next event in the series is the Baylys 2 Dargaville run/walk on May 13.

While the focus of the series has always been promoting exercise, serious athletes compete in the Mizone Leaderboard - with the top prize a Suzuki Splash. One distance from each of the seven events in the series is specified for the leaderboard with the 9km race yesterday nominated.