Young Lake City Athletic Club runner Michael Voss is aiming for a golden future in marathons.
Voss, 19, battled his way through windy conditions to win the recent Wellington half marathon.
The local athlete, who runs up to 160km a week, is training for the 2016 Oceania and New Zealand Cross-country Championships in Auckland next month. In last month's Wellington race Voss ran 1h 10m 14s - nearly two minutes faster than Manawatu runner Chris Sanson, who was second.
Voss led for the entire race, which started and finished at the Westpac Stadium. The course was flat all the way, but it was a tough finish for Voss with a strong headwind on the home stretch.
"It was incredibly windy and it certainly affected my overall time," he said. "I had wanted a course record but I'm happy to get the win because there were some tough athletes in the field.