The All Blacks had not yet played a test, the first powered flight was still to come and the first radio news broadcast was still 18 years away.
One thing that has remained the same is the Port Road Race on the Otago athletics calendar. The 2017 edition of the race will be held tomorrow, 115 years after it was first run. Billed as the oldest running road race in Australasia, it was originally run on an unmarked course between Port Chalmers and Dunedin.
The modern-day 12km course follows the original road from Port Chalmers, which was sealed in 1934 and is now State Highway 88 Traditionally a fixture of the winter harriers season, the race was moved to January last season as part of an attempt to rejuvenate the event.
Other changes brought in for this year have opened it up to the general public and various prizes have been put up.
Over the past 20 years, the winner has gone under 40 minutes only twice.
Caden Shields was the most recent, winning the 2007 race in 39min 34sec.
Caversham’s Jonah Smith, the defending men’s champion, won last year in 43min 02sec. Shireen Crumpton claimed the women’s title for a second year in a row last year and she holds the women’s record of 45min 55sec, set in 1999.
It is traditionally a handicapped race and the records list both the fastest and first finishing men and, since 1982, women. Last year a sealed handicap was introduced for registered athletes, meaning the race no longer has a staggered start and handicaps are worked out afterwards.
The event starts at the intersection of State Highway 88 and Borlases Rd at 1pm tomorrow, following a 12km course to finish in Butts Rd.
