MARATHON - Ngawati to tackle event in Aust

Whangarei's Ady Ngawati will represent New Zealand at the Gold Coast Marathon on July 5.
The renowned event doubles as the Oceania Championships and Ngawati, along with Nelson's Kim Hogarth were selected as the sole Kiwi representatives.
Ngawati's results from last year ensured her selection - she won the Auckland Marathon for the second time, was second in the NZ championship Kerikeri Half Marathon and third at the 2008 NZ marathon championship race at Rotorua.
Meanwhile, Hogarth won the men's Kerikeri half and will compete in the 21km race at the Gold Coast.
It will be the third time Ngawati has run in the Gold Coast event, having contested it in 2005 and 2006.
"I ran it in three hours and three minutes back then - it was when I just got back into marathon running," she said.
Since then, Ngawati has dropped her personal best time to 2hr 46min, posted at Auckland last year. The Gold Coast event attracts a lot of international competitors and Ngawati said she was expecting a hard field.
"There is always a strong field - it's the sister race to the Japan Marathon in Tokyo so there are always a lot of Japanese runners.
"They are good, strong runners and will be competitive."
Last year's women's race was won by New Zealander Shireen Crumpton who posted 2hr 38min on the dead flat and fast course.
Crumpton was selected in the NZ team, along with Northland product Mary Davies and Fiona Docherty, to compete at the World Cup Marathon in Berlin later this year and it was unknown as yet whether the Otago runner would turn up to defend her title, Ngawati said.
Runners had to produce a 2hr 42min or better to make the Kiwi team to run at Berlin, which Ngawati did not do, but her focus is directed elsewhere - on the Xterra World Off-Road Championships in Hawaii during December, followed by the Honolulu Marathon a week later.
"Realistically I'm using Gold Coast as part of my build-up for Hawaii," she said.
Time-wise, Ngawati was not sure what she could achieve at Gold Coast - familiar territory for the 32-year-old, who lived there before returning to Whangarei several years ago.
"I've had the flu for the last week and it's four weeks out from the event - my build-up hasn't been ideal, so I will see how I go."
However, prior to becoming ill, things were on track - Ngawati was second in the open women's 37km Cape Brett Challenge, and she was the first woman home at race one of Xterra Off-Road Series in Auckland two weeks ago.
Cool, calm and ideal running conditions are qualities of the 42.2km Gold Coast Marathon, which starts and finishes in Southport after exploring the coastline, and Ngawati is hoping for more of the same come July 5.