Few spaces left as Whanganui’s 3 Bridges Marathon event passes 1000 entries

Last year's event attracted around 900 people. Photo / Andrew Ninness

The Whanganui’s 3 Bridges marathon event has hit a record number of entries as race day looms. It will start and finish at Kowhai Park for the first time, a change from the Pākaitore Moutoa Gardens.

Organiser Paula Conder, from the Wanganui Harrier Club, said more than 1000 people had signed up. There was still space for a few late entries but not much.

“We’ve had more entries than ever before, so people will need to get in quick,” Conder said. “We’re hoping the new course will lead to faster times and, possibly, greater numbers in the future.”

Around 900 people took part last year.

There were 197 competitors at the inaugural event in 2004. The full marathon begins at 6am and takes in the Dublin, City and Cobham Bridges over four laps.

Other distances on offer are the half-marathon, quarter-marathon, 5km run and relay and the 1.2km kids’ run. The kids’ run is to take place across the Whanganui River at the Cornmarket Reserve.

Conder said Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe would line up in the quarter-marathon and star athlete Sally Gibbs was in the half-marathon field. Gibbs, who holds the women’s world record over 5000m and 10,000m in the 60-64 age group, won last year’s women’s half-marathon with a time of 1:27.55. She will need to go one minute faster to break the women’s course record of 1:26.45, set by Nicole Goldsmid in 2013.

The 2023 men’s marathon (42.2km) was won by Poland’s Wojciech Kopec in 2:38.37, and Emma O’Rourke from New Plymouth was the first woman home with a time of 3:22:49.

Rotorua’s Michael Voss set the current course record of 2:27.26 in 2022, smashing the previous best by close to 10 minutes. Conder said there would be at least 30 overseas athletes from 10 countries this year – another record.

The Whanganui 3 Bridges Marathon is scheduled to take place on Sunday, December 1.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.