News & Updates

On his home-region course, Otago athlete Oli Chigell takes out the senior men’s 10km national cross country championship (Photo: Joe Allison)

Oli Chignell triumphed on his home course for the senior men’s title and Waikato Bay of Plenty champion Kerry White added the national women’s title with an impressive display of front running at the Chisholm Links in Dunedin.

A large group headed to men’s title race over 10km, which was down to Chignell leading Taylor, Janus Staufenberg and Christopher Dryden after the first two laps.

But once Chignell had found his rhythm he was on his own and on his way to his second national cross country title.

He finished full of running in 31:45, 19 seconds ahead of Taylor with Christopher Dryden third in 32:23.

Chignell knew he was in the form to win.

“I knew I had the tools to win from wherever I needed to whether that be from the gun or the last 200m. The plan was to ease my way into it over the first couple of laps and find my legs. It’s a tough course and it was a matter of finding a natural rhythm if you can and from 6km out I decided to move to the front and run the race at a pace that I found comfortable but pushing it.

“I just gradually lengthened out, from 10 metres went out to 150-200 metres and just kept working all the way through,” said Chignell as a hailstorm swept the ground.

Last year in the challenge race on the Chisholm Links course, Chignell was third behind Hayden Wilde and Sam Tanner.

“No one was anyway near Hayden Wilde last year and he just went out and smashed it. And coming in this year I knew I was in really good form, fairly good shape and I knew that I could win and so it was just about running my own race and executing what I’d planned to do.

Chignell bypassed the Otago championship.

“I had a bit of a problem with plantar fascia, so I decided to give it a miss and save myself for the big dance and I had a lot of pent-up racing energy and I managed to unleash today in full force.

“Bathurst here went come all the way, hopefully some big competitions next year, world cross, World outdoor champs, Comm Games, that would be brilliant,” said Chignell.

White said that having done a good time in winning the Waikato title, she knew she was in the form to tackle the national title.

“I thought if I can do something similar in the nationals I’d be in for a pretty good shot.

“I didn’t really have a plan, I was going in with a good bunch of girls and I said okay let’s see how long we can stick with them for. When I started getting up on them, I was starting to feel really good and so I kept pushing this pace and I took the lead and tried to hold it and I did and it felt really good.

“I was just so stoked, I thought that it was in me and the confidence to have that and I did it, finally did it and things are starting to tick and I’m so happy to get that win,” said White.

Her winning time was 37:23, Auckland’s Anneke Grogan was second in 37:47 and Ruby Muir third in 38:46.

Lisa Cross blitzed the master women’s 6km and Rodwyn Isaacs led in the master men.

Outstanding runs came from Will Anthony in the under 20 men 8km in 25:53, Hannah Gapes in the under 20 women, Charlie Hazlett in the under 18 men, Bella Earl in the under 18 women.

Results
Women
Senior 10km: Kerry White (Waikato Bay of Plenty) 37m 23 1, Anneke Grogan (Auckland) 37m 47s 2, Ruby Muir (Wellington) 38m 46s 3.

Masters 6km: Lisa Cross (Auckland) 23m 34s 1, Sally Gibbs (Waikkato Bay of Plenty) 24m 59s 2, Heather Walker (Wellington) 25m 26s 3.

Under-20 6km: Hannah Gapes (Waikato) 22m 18s 1, Chloe Browne (Auckland) 23m 14s 2, Penelope Salmon (Auckland) 23m 28s 3.

Under-18 5km: Bella Earl (Northland) 18m 49s 1, Zara Geddes (Otago) 19m 23s 2, Stella Hammond (Auckland) 19m 27s 3.

Under-16 4km: Boh Ritchie (Hamilton) 15m 38s 1, Brynne Gordon (Port Hills) 15m 49s 2, Sophie Robb (Auckland) 16m 1s 3.

Under-14 3km: Imogen Barlow (Pakuranga) 11m 31s 1, Scarlett Robb (Auckland) 11m 47s 2, Eva Green (Hutt Valley) 12m 19s 3.

Men
Senior 10km: Oli Chignell (Otago) 31m 45s 1, Matthew Taylor (Auckland) 32m 4s 2, Christopher Dryden (Canterbury) 32m 23s 3.

Masters 8km: Rodwyn Isaacs (Auckland) 27m 34s 1, Nick Moore (Auckland) 27m 47s 2, Iain Macdonald (Waikato Bay of Plenty) 28m 3s 3.

Under-20 8km: Will Anthony (Wellington) 25m 53s 1, Cameron Clark (Canterbury) 26m 52s 2, George Lambert (Manawatu Whanganui) 27m 8s 3.

Under-18 6km: Charlie Hazlett (Canterbury) 20m 6s 1, Christian De Vaal (Auckland) 20m 19s 2, Joshua Gill (Tasman) 20m 21s 3.

Under-16 4km: Jack Erikson (Auckland) 13m 54s 1, Daniel Prescott (Selwyn) 13m 59s 2, Angus Sevier (Port Hills) 14m 6s 3.

Under-14 3km: Ben Oxford (Pakuranga) 10m 52s 1, Blake Miscall (Hutt Valley) 10m 59s 2, Kayden Theron (Te Puke) 11m 7s 3.

For the full results click here.

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