Ramblers revel in cool change

Athletics

Starting their event from the banks of the Waiohine River, at the end of River Rd, Matarawa, proved a wise move for the Ruamahanga Ramblers this week.

Not only did they enjoy the fact the water was a lot cleaner than the Ruamahanga alongside which other races have started but several competitors were able to take the opportunity to cool off from the burning sun.

Greytown residents Lorraine Moloney and Liz Farley turned the event into a triathlon of sorts, biking from their homes on the Greytown side of the river, swimming (wading actually) across the river to the start point and then competing in the race.

For Kate Gay it was a case of earning bragging rights over arch-rival Ray Wallis who had beaten her by four minutes the previous week. This time the two raced neck and neck until the last 200m where Gay sprinted clear, clocking a personal best time by some 90s in the process.

Malcolm Macdonald made the most of being paced by Paul Furkert to record his first sub-20m 5km for the season, finishing in 19m 59s.

The course set by Greg Lang was "clover leaf"-shaped which had all runners and walkers passing each other four times during the race, meaning they could keep a good gauge of how their opposition were doing.

How they finished

2km: Matthew Sebire 10.58, Kasey Cox 13.34, Xanthe Furkert 21.00, Jane McDougall 24.38.

5km run: Paul Furkert 19.42, Malcolm Macdonald 19.59, Greg Lang 21.13, Craig Bird 21.16, John Sage 22.17, Stephen Yeats 22.31, Dean McDougall 22.49, Teresa Reynolds 23.14, Marty Sebire 24.27, Susan Southey 25.14, Kate Gay 31.21, Ray Wallis 31.26.

5km walk: Steve Edge 34.06, John Ihaka 35.06, Ali Lang 36.48, Lorraine Moloney 36.48, Cath Wedderburn 39.00, Liz Farley 39.03, Kevin Whale 41.15, Linda Fairbrother 42.28, Trish Whale 42.28, Irene Price 45.12, Monica Hobbs 48.04, Wendy Burkhart 48.04.