Kilding saves energy for final spurt

Takapuna's Andrew Kilding breezed through the 20th Fullers' Great Sights Kerikeri Half-Marathon in 1hr 11min 26sec, taking gold ahead of 1662 runners.
 Over the early stages of the 21.1km event on Saturday, Pakuranga's Johan Vanhoovels, who has a personal best of 1:10.30 , looked
to have his rival's  measure, but Kilding had plenty  in reserve.
 "I took off at a fairly controlled pace and just worked after the first 6km and picked it up a little bit, and managed to break away from the Pakuranga guy round about 11 or 12km," he said.
"There was a little side wind on a couple of the straights but it was pretty perfect conditions.
"I've been meaning to do this for quite a few years but it is  quite close to Auckland [marathon], so it's nice to come up here and get a weekend away."
Vanhoovels finished second in 1:13:2, ahead of Aucklander Geoff Rickerby, third in 1:16:37  and Whangarei's 51-year-old Ian Calder, fourth in 1:17:11.
In the women's race, Lydia O'Donnell, from Auckland, pulled off the surprise of the day, powering up the first hill and opening gaps - that she held to the finish - on triathlete Sam Warriner and distance runner Ady Ngawati.
"I felt quite strong on the hill and tried to get away from them," she said.
O'Donnell crossed the finish line for gold in 1:17:25 , comfortably clear of Warriner, who ran 1:19:18.

 That she succeeded in holding off two runners of Warriner's and Ngawati's calibre was a pleasant surprise to  O'Donnell.

 "I've only ever done one other half-marathon and that was in 1:20, a couple of months ago," she said.
Despite crossing the line behind O'Donnell, Warriner was pleased with her early-season form.
"It's only in week four for me and I've been in the middle of a big bike block," she said.
"I haven't done a lot of running since I had my break, so it was a good hitout." 
Ngawati, who was using the race as her last hard training session before the Xterra World Trail Championships next month in Hawaii, took third in 1:19.40, just .22 sec behind Warriner.
In the men's walk 63-year-old James McKinstry won gold in 2:8:51, holding off a challenge by Alan Connelly who took silver in 2:11:35, with Frank Smedly taking bronze in 2:14:02.
Nicki Paget won gold in the women's walk in 2:29:50, while Charmaine O'Shea took silver in 2:30:07 and Jan Robertson  bronze in 2:32:02.
Lee Warn, the sole wheelchair competitor, finished in an impressive time of 91min, despite a grazed arm and shoulder.
His tyre punctured 5km  from the finish and, worse, with his chair continually pulling to the left, he hit a cone close to the finish and tumbled over.