Whippets have lived up to their name to smash a 52-year-old record at the Lovelock Relays.
The Christchurch-based running group of Ronan Codyre, Connor Melton, William Little, David Lee, Jack Paine and Russell Green obliterated the six-man 1500m senior men’s record, finishing in 23min 53sec at the University Oval on Saturday.
Their time smashed the previous record of 24min 12.6sec, set at the annual relays by the University of Otago men’s team in 1972.
It was a stunning race in blistering hot conditions from the visiting crew, who, after the first leg, never looked like letting the record pass them by.
Oli Chignell dominated the first leg for Hill City-University, finishing with the fastest men’s time of 3min 55sec.
But the Whippets were a force to be reckoned with from that point.
Leg five runner Paine came close to Chignell’s efforts with 3min 56sec, before Green, a former Hill City-University runner, brought the team home.
Hill City-University came second, finishing in 25min 43sec.
In the senior women’s four-runner event, Hill City-University stormed home in 19min 47sec, led by Becky Greene.
Greene broke the senior women’s record she set in 2013 with her new time of 4min 32sec.
She ran 4min 34sec 10 years ago.
Caversham was runner-up with its time of 21min 16sec.
Hill City-University reversed last year’s master’s men’s loss to Leith, winning the title with 18min 59sec.
The club also won the master’s women’s title with 24min 3sec.
Ariki won the secondary school grade with bookend Catherine Lund the fastest female with her time of 5min 11sec. Caversham’s Oliver Lodge posted the fastest men’s time of 4min 53sec.
Caversham won the social mixed grade and the under-12-primary grade, and Salmond won the mixed Otago University residential college title.
