Athletics: Hamblyn in super form

By MURRAY MCKINNON

Paul Hamblyn received the perfect 21st birthday present yesterday, a senior 10,000m road running title at the Viaduct Basin in Auckland.

In his first attempt at the distance, Hamblyn, from North Harbour Bays, had to withstand a strong challenge from Lynndale's Anthony Concannon over the final 400m.

But his track speed held him to a 1s victory in 32m 3s, to claim the Auckland regional title.

Lee-Ann McPhillips, ran in a lead-up to attempting to win the New Zealand women's road title for the third year in a row in Hamilton in two weeks.

She came back from a bad patch midway through the race to beat Lesley Morton, in 35m 18s for the 10,000m.