A chilled Craig Manson took the pressure in stride to unleash the big one in his sixth and final toss for a winning 42.33m distance at the New Zealand Rural Games in Palmerston North.
By no means was it a sure thing, as his first three throws had him lying in fifth with a middling fling of 36m at that stage.
"The winning throw at the time was 40.2m so there were four people between me. I kind of bombed out a couple after they hooked the wind in the next two. Then my third one, I aimed to the right because I was throwing a bit early to my left side and it just kept going and it went 42m. I didn’t think it went that far until they measured it and I just held that winning position until the end so I was just stoked."
Runner-up was Stu McNie from Raetihi and third Ben MacManus, also from the North Island, while Taihape's Kristin Churchward was the women's champion with a throw of 33.28m.
The winning throw fell below Mr Manson’s personal best of 46m performed in a strong tail wind at the qualifying event at the Canterbury A&P Show a few years ago.
Brought up on a small sheep farm in Mayfield, he took up interior plastering after the property was sold 10 years ago.
The rural connection still runs deep and explains his passion for competing the past five years in the rural games.
Previous attempts have ended in him finishing second or third, so he is pleased to have finally come out a winner.
Mr Manson’s mates also approve of his new status.
"They are just stoked. I’m a local hero in Ashburton for throwing a gumboot, of all things. I’m happy as."
He admits to taking a relaxed approach.
His success in competitive gumboot throwing can be traced to his first passion.
The compact 100 kilogram competitor, standing at 1.79m, is a two-time Australian and a two-time New Zealand champion in the highland heavy events.
This includes the disciplines of the caber toss, 16 pound and 22 pound Scottish hammers, 28 pound and 56 pound distance weights, sheaf toss and a 56 pound weight over bar.
The national gumboot title came with a family set of Skellerup Red Band gumboots — a pair each for him and wife Summer, and the others going to some lucky nieces.
Most of the rural games events such as speed fencing and speed shearing were won by North Island competitors, including the teams gumboot title.
An exception was Reefton's Richard Banks Senior, who won the men's national coal shovelling championship with a time of 30.54s and paired with Taihape’s Curly Troon to win the doubles event.
Mr Manson has pretty much ruled out a trip to the world gumboot championships in France because of the expense.
As for defending his title next year, he still plans to take a low key approach.
"It wouldn’t hurt to do some training, but I think the key is not to take it too seriously. In the end it’s just a gumboot in the field. You can’t beat yourself up too much."
The three-day event at Palmerston North's square centre attracted a record crowd of about 45,000 onlookers.
Other rural sports included wood chopping and an egg throw and catch, Dannevirke’s Jarna Mihare setting a record in the highlander stones category with a time of 25.43 seconds, which smashed the previous record by more than 15 seconds.
