THE Whakatāne men were impressive in the National Road Relays held at the Taupō motor racing circuit last Saturday.

This was a very well organised event with teams from all over New Zealand, and included pits and pit lanes, just like the slightly faster version of racing.

The team comprised seven men, Conor O’Toole, Adrian Macquet, Joel Stansloski, Oliver Ashburn, Liam Dooley, Hilton Power and Max Green, running distances between 4.66 and 10.14 kilometres.

The team finished midfield, running the 55.36km in 3 hours 20 minutes and 29 seconds.  This equates to a good average pace of 3 minutes, 37 seconds a kilometre.

The team were third of the five Waikato-BOP clubs, behind Lake City and Athletics Tauranga, and beating Hamilton Hawks and Cambridge. It was a very good regional result.

Team manager Will Dooley said it was a great team effort finishing midfield in elite company, in the clubs first venture back into this competition in around 20 years.  

“We are looking forward to competing again next year, when it will be held in Feilding, with hopefully more teams from Whakatāne.  The camaraderie was inspiring, spurring on the athletes.”

On the same day, David Milne competed in the Blue Lake 24-hour race.  Athletes can compete as many of the 6km laps as they like.  Milne completed 17 laps making a total run of 102km: a great performance.

The exciting and scenic Eggleton’s Farm Cross Country is on tomorrow.

This is located at McGregor Road, off Woodlands Road, Ōpōtiki, (it will be signposted) and is well worth attending.

There will be cross country courses of 2, 4 and 6km and also the mountain running series to the top of the 419-metre peak.

Meet at 12.30pm sharp for transport from the clubrooms to arrive at the farm at 1.30pm for a 2pm start.