As Queenstown braced itself to host the 10th edition of the Queenstown Marathon — which organisers said had attracted 12,500 people, 90% of whom were travelling from outside the district — high winds creating ‘‘severe wind shear’’ at Queenstown Airport forced the diversion of eight inbound flights.
It meant hundreds of runners were either unable to get to the start line — or arrived too late to finish the official distance — and also resulted in 170 people staying at Queenstown Airport on Friday night.
Airport sustainability and corporate affairs general manager Sara Irvine said while that was ‘‘far from desirable’’, the airport wanted to ensure stranded passengers were looked after, given it was almost impossible to find accommodation on Friday.
‘‘Both airlines worked with the airport to [help] affected passengers — refreshments were available for people and some sleeping mats were organised as well.’’
While marathon organisers could not be contacted yesterday to confirm if people who missed the event would be offered either a refund or an automatic entry into next year’s event, official participant numbers show 12,170 people made it to the start line in time.
Of those, 2522 were in the marathon — prior to the event, organisers said more than 3000 people had registered this year, making it the biggest marathon in New Zealand.
Included among those who did make it was Isaiah Duncanson, of Nelson, who had already completed a marathon of a different kind just to get there.
Duncanson flew to Wellington on Friday to catch the direct flight to Queenstown.
His plane was ‘‘5m off the ground’’ in the resort, but could not land due to the winds and was sent back to Wellington.
He managed to book a seat on a flight to Christchurch, which landed at 10pm, where his friend, Phoebe Bardoul, was waiting, having opted not to get on to her flight to Queenstown.
Instead, she drove him through the night — the pair arrived at 4.19am, four hours before he was due on the start line.
Noting he did not get any sleep, he paid tribute to his coach, Jack Davies, who ensured he got the job done in a time of 2hr 45min 30sec.
That put him fourth in his 25-29 age group and 20th overall.
An added bonus was winning $2000 thanks to a wager he made with a mate about six months ago.
In the elite fields, Christchurch-based Englishwoman Hannah Olroyd claimed her sixth title — and fourth consecutive — in 2hr 52min 53sec, 14 minutes clear of Amy Daniel, of Sydney, in second, and Tauranga’s Clair Horner in third (3hr 9min 50sec).
Queenstown-based Irishman Ciaran Faherty won his first marathon title, having finished fourth last year, in 2hr 34min 5sec, finishing over two minutes ahead of Orestas Rimkus, originally from Lithuania. Clinton Manderson, of Nelson, was third.
In the half-marathon, Taonga Mbambo, of Ashburton, beat the course record by almost a minute, to win in 1hr 6min 29sec, with Christopher Dryden, of Auckland, in second (1hr 7min 4sec) and Alex Harvey, of Noosa, 40 seconds further back in third.
Christchurch’s Maya Irving won the women’s half (1hr 22min 51sec) with Katie Morgan, of Wa ¯naka, second (1hr 23min 58sec) and Australian Olympic representative Madeline Heiner, of Melbourne, third (1hr 24min).
And in the 10km, Dunedin’s Oli Chignell broke the existing record, which stood since 2018, by more than two minutes, winning in just over 30 minutes, while Beth Garland, of the United Kingdom, won the women’s event in 37min 44sec.
