The small Northern Wairarapa township of Eketahuna could provide the winner of the men's title when the annual DB Wairarapa country marathon is raced over two laps of the Pakaraka circuit on Sunday.
Mark Eagle, a two times winner of the Wellington provincial Masters marathon championship, is aiming for his first
win in this contest after placing in the top three finishers in the past.
He is one of four entrants who have estimated completing the marathon in under three hours which suggests his main opposition will come from the other three?Gavin Champion of Masterton, Ed Massy of Wellington and Ray Boardman of Upper Hutt. Champion too has been a top three place getter in previous years and is one of the leading triathletes in the country in his age group
The women's marathon title looks set to go to Donna Wotton of Kapiti and, if that is the case, it will be her third victory in the race.
Three other events have been organised to coincide with the marathon with all of them starting and finishing at Makoura College.
The marathon will get underway at 7am, the half-marathon walk at 8am, the half-marathon run at 9am and the 10km run/walk at 9.30 am.
Overall entries are generally up on last year with the total sitting at 373 yesterday and expected to build to around 450 by race day.
The 10km run/walk is the most popular to date with 187 entries, followed by the half-marathon run 121, the marathon 33 and the half-marathon walk 32.
A local success seems assured in the veteran's section of the half-marathon run with Tony Price of Masterton hoping to break the race record for men 50yrs of 1hr 19min. He is capable of lowering that time by probably all of two minutes and along with Michael Macklin, Steve Hannam and Graeme Butcher should ensure that Masterton runners feature prominently in the top 10 placegetters in that particular event.
However, they are all likely to be chasing Dougal Thorburn of Wellington who has an estimated finishing time of 1hr 10min.
Leading chances for the women's half-marathon title are Wellington competitors, Loretta Dobbs and Rebecca Grangier.
