Monk, Priddey share Otago men’s road title

The Otago Road Championships  produced two men’s winners this year.

Hill City-University pair Jacob Priddey and Jared Monk proved inseparable, matching each other stride for stride around the Forbury Park course on Saturday.

After five laps and 10km the duo crossed the finish line in 32min 15sec, more than 3 minutes ahead of their nearest rival, Tim Bolter, who completed the trifecta for the Hill City-University club.An outstanding performance came from Rebekah Greene, in the senior women’s race.

She was the best part of 5min faster than Sophie Smith, recording a blistering time of 35min 49sec.

Smith and Sharon Lequeux were locked in a good battle for second place, with the former claiming the honours by just 7sec.

Smith will represent New Zealand at the 2018 World Trail Running Championships in Andorra next month, where the terrain will be quite different from the footpaths around Forbury Park.

One of the other outstanding results came in the women’s 35-49 masters races,  in which Taryn McLean scorched  around the 5km course in 19min 57sec.

Organiser Greg Johnston said the annual event attracted just under 80 athletes and catered to everyone from under-11s to masters grades.