Kristy Eyles and Taryn McLean played out another gripping episode in the duo’s stellar seasons at the Otago road championships on Saturday.
The two masters athletes have shown a mastery on a variety of terrains this season, Hill City-University’s McLean having the edge over Leith’s Eyles in their most recent encounter.
This time around, Eyles flipped the script.
On a breezy day along Dunedin’s Magnet St Walkway, young Invercargill-based Leith athlete Kimberley Iversen set the early pace before Eyles and McLean took the initiative just after the 5km race’s halfway mark.
Eyles knew she needed to keep the race intensity high back into a slight headwind to prevent McLean’s track speed from coming into play over the closing stages of the race.
It eventuated; Eyles, in a gutsy performance built a small lead over McLean before surging with just over a kilometre to go to leave the HCU athlete in second.
As it happened, the first three finishers all took home a gold medal.
Eyles was the race winner and first master home in 18min 24sec.
McLean had opted to enter the senior women’s category, winning that title in 18min 36sec as the second race finisher. Iverson clocked 18min 48sec to be the first under-20 competitor home.
Liam Chesney would now have a handful of Otago medals if he was affiliated to an Otago club.
The Dunedin-based Wellington Harriers athlete led the men’s 5km championships from the gun to finish in 15min 38sec but missed out on adding an Otago title to his growing list of accolades.
With second place in line to take the Otago title, the race was on.
Featuring prominently were Hill City-University’s Giles Witt and Nico Alvarez Rey-Virag, alongside Leith’s Grayson Westgate and Nic Bathgate. The quartet formed a chase group behind Chesney, working together for the initial downwind half of the race.
As they turned back into the wind, the tall figure of Westgate made his move. Bathgate attempted to follow but the triathlete had already made a decisive break.
With Chesney the race winner, Westgate held the gap to secure second and the Otago championship in 15min 57sec.
Bathgate battled hard to hold off Witt, but the fast-finishing HCU athlete came through in 16min 3sec for the Otago silver.
Bathgate, now a masters athlete, settled for the MM35-49 title, 4sec behind. Alvarez Rey-Virag was the first under-20 home in 16min 11sec.
Mark Lokman (HCU) won the MM50-64 category and Georgy Pakeho (HCU) the MW50-64 category. Ash Dustow (Leith) took the MM65+ and Dalise Sanderson (Ariki) the MW65+.
New Zealand representative Alex Brown (Caversham) won the 5km race walk.
— Luke Geddes
