2024 National Road Relay Taupo Motorsport Park
After some stressful highway detours & delays, the DGRS NRR group made it safely to our Taupo accommodation on Friday night. Although missing a number of DGRS members due to other commitments and injury, a keen group had travelled up to proudly fly the DGRS colours taking on the country's best at National Road Relays.
Sat, 28th Sept
In sunny, but cool blustery conditions, five teams gave their all, playing their part in this prestigious and highly competitive event on the NZ athletics calendar. Starting the day at 9am were the M50+ & the Senior Women’s teams.
Masters Men 50+
The M50+ team of Dave Cox, Jason Bailey, Chris Mardon, Richard Bennet, Malcolm Cornelius, Laurence Cooke & Nat Anglem were defending their title won last year against a strong group including previous Champions Wellington Scottish. Despite clawing back an early lead by Scottish & fighting off Wellington Harriers in the middle stages, the boys were beaten to the title by just over a minute posting a time of 4:31:40. A huge effort to grab silver, but they will be gunning for gold next year in Fielding.
Senior Women
The Senior Women’s team of Heidi Su, Ange Wreford, Olivia Richie, Jennifer Zhou, Kirsten Hall, Rosie Hay & Clara Fergus held their own against some seriously strong opposition. Fighting hard all the way, they finished in 3:52:53, a very respectable 9th out of a field of 15.
Senior Men
9.45am saw the Senior Men join the party. Leading by example as always was Don. Stepping up to help the short-handed Senior Men’s A grade team, he took on two legs as did Ramses Hunt. He followed that up by running the last leg for the Social team as well! Absolute Legend! In a stacked 25 team A-Grade, the team of Don, Ramses Hunt, James Richmond, Craig Oliver & Carl Richie, finished in 3:34:03, a very creditable 26th out of 32 senior men teams overall. Gutsy effort in such challenging wind.
Mixed Social
10am and the DGRS Thoroughbreds - Paul Ritchie (Olivia’s dad), Barry Helem, Brent Gilpin, Anthony Duncraft, Stephanie Rumble & Don Greig kicked off their Social grade race. Finishing in 3:20:24, 15th out of 22 teams was a solid effort. Well done guys!
Masters Women 50+
10.30am. Finally the Masters Women 50+ got their chance to shine, and it was to be a NZ title Gold medal 2:54:09 performance! Margy Gilpin, Maree Greig, Stephanie Rumble, Carolyn Morton, Tracey Grose & Tui Summers ran superbly to beat a Wanganui Athletic & Harrier Club team that included Masters World record holder and champion distance runner Sally Gibbs. What a great way to finish the competition.
After freshening up, it was back to the track at 4pm for the Prize-giving & photos. It was also an opportunity to catch up with old friends & rivals which is such a big part of this event. Lone Star was a great choice for the DGRS Team dinner. Good food, great people & winning rugby. An enjoyable night had by all, despite many very tired bodies. All the hard work put into organising teams, travel & accommodation in the weeks leading up to the NRR by Don, Maree, Margy, Brent, Antz & others was appropriately recognised.
If you missed this years NRR, start thinking about giving it a go in Fielding 2025, it will be back onto the roads and another awesome event!
Roving reporter – Malcolm Cornelius
