Hatea too good in Onerahi relay win

Hatea Harriers men's team ran to a well-deserved victory over L J Hooker Athletics Whangarei's top team in the Onerahi Relays.
Saturday's 6km course, started and finished at St Stephen's Church. It was tough enough with a steep climb up Hill St, but deteriorating weather added to the toughness with driving rain and wind gusts buffeting runners along Beach Rd.
Whangarei's men were challenged from the start when Hatea's Ryan Smith, home from Auckland University, took Hatea B into the lead on the first lap, ahead of Mark Turner running for Hatea A, while Whangarei's well-performed Rob Lieffering trailed in third.
Despite cutting out the 6km in 21m 21sec, Smith felt he had run at a relaxed pace, nursing an injury.
"I've been off [training] for a couple of weeks so my coach said it was best not to run at Taupo [in the North Island Cross-Country Championships], so I decided to support Hatea. The physios told me to shorten my stride - so it wasn't a flat-out run and I just wanted to take it easy," Smith said.
In lap two Hatea A's Jonny Creelman ran 22m 15s, gaining a further 14 seconds on Whangarei's Mike Gowing, who ran 22m 29s, passing Hatea B's Harry Linford.
Hatea's new recruit Ken Walker performed up to his reputation on lap three, running 22m 49s and increasing the gap from Whangarei's former marathon champion Richard Blogg, who ran 24m 11s.
Whangarei's Ian Calder had an impossible deficit to overtake Matt Andrews on the final lap. Although Calder ran the fastest time of the day in 21m 03s, Andrews - better known as an endurance cyclist - ran strongly, finishing in 21m 51s, bringing Hatea home in first place, 1m 10s ahead of Whangarei.
Andrews's run came a week after victory in a day-night 12-hour mountainbike race - cat-eye moonlight ride - in Rotorua. He normally trains by biking and running.
Hatea B's Smith, Linford, Cameron Trass and Anson Clapcott took third, ahead of Hatea C - John Kent, Colin Smith, Rob Dinsdale and Neville Bassett.
It was left to the Whangarei women to uphold the numerically stronger club's honour, with a victory over Hatea's women by almost 12 minutes.
Thirteen-year-old Imogen Hull set Whangarei off to a flying start with her opening lap of 25m 45s, the fastest women's time of the day for the 6km course, and 3m 26s ahead of Hatea's Judith Bradshaw. Whangarei's next runners Janice Powell, 27m 35s, Denise Limby, 27m 32s, and Tina Maher, 28m 35s all gained time over Hatea's Annette Murray, 29m 57s, Toni Daly, 31m 27s, and Jackie Grant, 29m 53s.
In the under-14 relay over a 3km circuit, Amanda Still ran an excellent 14m 58s for fastest time in the grade.
Whangarei A won the walk over a 3km circuit ahead of Whangarei B, with Liz Griffin 8s faster than Mari Fushida-Hardy.