Second win puts NY in the picture

A successful defence of the Auckland Marathon title yesterday may have finally convinced Northlander Ady Ngawati to specialise in the gruelling event and line up for one of the banner marathon races overseas.
Ngawati won the women's title for the second year running yesterday, soaking up the pressure of expectation to deliver an emphatic victory in 2h 46.43m.
Now she is considering lining up in one of the world's biggest such events, the New York Marathon, and concentrating her efforts on trying to break 2h 40m.
But that will be only after she ticks another event off her wish-list of must-do running races, the Cape Brett Challenge off-road race in April.
"It just felt good. I felt really relaxed about it all and things just seemed to just go my way," Ngawati said of her victory yesterday.
"I ran a personal best, which is always good, and right from the start just felt like I was feeling good.
"At about the 20km mark I was running with Lara Phillips and we were talking away to each other.
"But then something clicked. I just thought, 'Yeah, I am going to run today', and put a bit of a break on and never looked back."
It was quite a performance from the unassuming sports tutor from Whangarei, running against several of the best female marathon runners in the country.
In near-perfect conditions Ngawati was always on the pace, and when she made her decisive move, she left Phillips languishing.
At the finish line Ngawati had put more than two minutes on Phillips.
But even though she was a dominant force, Ngawati still seemed unconvinced that a career as a marathon runner beckons.
"This might lead on to other stuff, but I would need to drop my time under the 2h 40m mark and it depends on a lot of other things. I want to do Cape Brett. Personally that is just one race I want to do and after that maybe look at something like New York."
Aucklander Ben Ruthe won the men's race in 2h 28.10m. A capacity field of more than 8000 runners took part in the race, which next year will double as the New Zealand Marathon championship event.