However, despite his best efforts, he was not placed in the top three, with the event being won by Ross McCone.
More than 80 shearers and wool handlers competed in the one-day event at Tara Hills and Omarama Station woolsheds.
Resurrected this year, the event will become part of the annual shearing events. It was last held in 2004 as the Omarama merino expo.
While organisers were pleased with the entries, they hoped the contest would grow in the future.
This year's entries were down because of the short notification of the event and shearers trying to catch up on a season affected by bad weather.
Those who did compete were able to use it as a preparation for the Merino Shears in Alexandra this weekend.
James Fagan took up where he left off from the 2004 Omarama event, where he won the New Zealand open winter comb championship.
On Saturday, he won the open machine shearing title.
Results were:-
Senior machine shearing: Ross McCone 1, Chris Brown 2, Kalab Godsell 3.
Open machine shearing: James Fagan 1, Nathan Stratford 2, Colin Dennison 3.
Open blade shearing: Philip Oldfield 1, Jim Barnett 2, Ross Kelman 3.
Junior wool handling: Katie Hurley 1, Sonia Pablecheque 2, Amy Ruki 3.
Senior wool handling: Wendy Parsons 1, Kohai Martin 2, Choppy Pattison 3.
Open wool handling: Joel Henare 1, Robyn Murray 2, Gina Nathan 3.
