Surprises & A Six-Time Winner In Christchurch

Pristine weather, close to 5000 participants, a home town winner, a six-time winner, two new national champions and close to 5000 participants made the 36th Christchurch Airport Marathon one to remember.

Ladies stole the limelight in the Garden City today, with American-based Kiwi Liza Hunter-Galvan winning the South Island’s premier marathon event for a record sixth time, while Auckland’s Olivia Burne upset a stellar field in the half marathon.

Burne came into the half marathon, which doubled as the New Zealand championship, as an outside medal chance. The 24-year-old was a standout teenage runner who won a track scholarship to an American university before taking a break from the sport. But she returned to the national scene last year to finish third in the Auckland half marathon. In Christchurch, however, she simply ran away from defending champion Lydia O’Donnell and Cambridge runner Rowan Torckler to announce herself as the country’s form female on the domestic scene right now.

Defending champion Lydia O’Donnell set the tempo in the opening kilometre, but Burne and Torckler picked it up another notch around Hagley Park. By the 10k mark at Latimer Square, however, Burne had a lead that she extended as they wound their way along the Avon River amidst Christchurch’s earthquake ravaged red zone.

By 15k Burne had almost a minute in hand, but was clearly suffering. In the closing 5k Torckler was catching, but Burne hung tough to claim her first national senior title by 36 seconds. Her time of 1hr 15min 31secs was a personal best and also a rare win for the Blues rugby franchise, where Burne is the digital media and marketing officer.

“Oh that was so tough,” said the winner as she stood hands on knees at the finish line. “I felt good, but I was just hanging on in the second half.”

Asked if her win was as surprising to her as it was to everyone else, she said, “I knew I was in good shape and my coach always says to run my own race and not worry about the competition, so that’s what I did.”

That coach – Kiwi distance running legend Barry Magee – obviously coaches from experience, because that’s exactly the tactic he used 56 years ago to claim bronze in the Rome Olympic Marathon.”

Behind Burne, Torckler claimed second ahead of O’Donnell, who clocked 1hr 17min 01secs. In fourth place, Cambridge runner Alice Mason (1hr 17min 27secs) wasn’t quite able to emulate her full marathon win from Christchurch last year, while Dunedin’s Hannah Millar claimed fifth.

In sixth place Kati Kati’s Sally Gibbs celebrated her 53rd birthday with a win in the masters category, finishing 45 seconds clear of Australian Julia Norney in 1hr 20min 13secs.

While Olivia Burne’s surprise win was her first major title, Liza Hunter-Galvan claimed the full marathon title for a record sixth time. And the fact that the 46 year is old enough to be the half marathon winners mother was not lost on her.

“I think that might be my last time,” she said while struggling to stand on cramping calf muscles. “The only thing that kept me going was that I was leading. I might not have if someone has caught me.”

Galvan ran a similar race to the half marathon winner too, setting her own tempo and gradually pulling away from challengers Mel Aitken (Dun), Candace Hammond (Akld) and Julia Grant (Chch).

Aitken had previously finished third (2012 & 2013) and second (2015) in Christchurch, and in last year’s race the 39-year-old police officer finished second ahead of third placed Hunter-Galvan to claim second. The two ran side by side through the early kilometres, but this year the Texas-based Kiwi proved too strong in the second half of the race to win by 3min 51secs in 2hrs 50min 11secs.

Behind them Candace Hammond and Julia Grant staged a private battle for third, with Hammond getting the upper hand by 59 seconds in 2hrs 58min 04secs.

Christchurch runners managed to give the host city reason to cheer among men, however. In the half marathon, which doubled as the New Zealand championship, Oska Baynes upset more fancied favourites, Aaron Pulford (Akld) and Daniel Balchin (Chch).

In a tight race, a lead bunch of six men went clear in the opening kilometres. At 10k it was down to five, with Pulford the aggressor. “Aaron keep putting in surges, the cheeky bugger,” joked Baynes after winning by just a few strides.”

The two runners had gone clear over the final 5k and the Aucklander looked likely to break clear. But Baynes followed every surge and then with less than 1k to run he made just one surge of his own and made it stick. Although even then nothing was certain.

Turning into Colombo Street, with only 100m to the Cathedral Square finish line, Baynes led by three seconds. But confusion reigned when the lead safety car got in the way and Baynes ended up stuck on the wrong side of the finish chute, still leading but unable to cross the finish line. With quick thinking and cat-like agility, however, the 25-year-old ducked under the barriers and crossed the line just a few strides ahead in 1hr 06min 34secs.

Behind this entertaining finish, second placed Pulford finished almost unnoticed a stride behind and both men were awarded the same time. Third placed Mike Voss didn’t get the attention he deserved either. The Rotorua teenager was just 16 seconds behind to claim bronze ahead of more fancied Daniel Balchin. Christchurch’s Cameron Avery claimed fifth, just two seconds clear of 40-year-old Mark Bailey, a former winner who claimed the masters title in 1hr 09min 23secs.

Christchurch had another victory of sorts when Dougal Thorburn took a popular win in the full marathon. The 34-year-old doctor was bought up in Christchurch before moving away for medical school and now practises in Wellington. But his win also followed confusion, when after only a few kilometres the defending champion and race favourite, Japanese runner Hiro Tanimoto, pulled up lame with a recurring injury.

For a few moments the lead bunch of Thorburn, Auckland’s Jono Jackson and Irishman Ciaran Faherty didn’t quite know how to react and almost shrugged at each other before going back to the war of attrition that is marathon running. Jackson was the first to fall away, but Faherty – who moved to Auckland and took up serious running only two years ago – hung on well past halfway.

They were still together at 30k when Thorburn, who had won the national mountain running title just four weeks earlier, illustrated that strength with a decisive move to run away for the win and a personal best time of 2hrs 24min 51secs. Second placed Faherty stayed close to finish in 2hrs 26min 38secs, while third placed Jackson was obviously disappointed, his time of 2hrs 30min 37secs being well short of his best.

Having previously finished second in the Christchurch half marathon, Thorburn was delighted to finally nab a win in his hometown race. “I always try and support the Christchurch Marathon. It’s great to race in my hometown and the organisers do a great job of bringing all the top runners together,” he said after cantering across the line with arms outstretched and thumbs up.

Earlier in the day Christchurch runners Sean Eustace and Ben Musson had a ding-dong battle in the 10k race, with Eustace having too much pace in the final few hundred metres to win by three seconds in 31min 25secs. Wellington’s Alice Wilson had a little more room to breathe among women with a nine second win ahead of Rolleston’s Melanie Angland in 38min 22secs.

The perfect weather, fast course and half a dozen live bands around the course created a superb atmosphere for 4600 participants from as far afield as the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Norfolk Island, Poland, Singapore, Arab Emirates, UK and USA. The day closed on a high with almost 350 kids racing their own Christchurch Airport Mara’Fun around Christchurch’s rebuilding inner city.

Held every year on Queens Birthday Weekend, the 2017 Christchurch Marathon will be held on Sunday 4th June. For full results from 2016 vsit: christchurchmarathon.co.nz

ENDS

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