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The last time the New Zealand Road Championships were held in Upper Hutt, Geoff Shaw romped to an emphatic victory in the senior men’s race to claim one of the biggest wins of his career. We speak to the gifted age-group athlete who after a lengthy break from the sport was elated to land the national road title in Heretaunga.

A gifted U20 athlete who ran a stunning all-time New Zealand 5000m best performance of 13:48.4 by a teenager, Geoff Shaw was a youngster of huge promise. A three-time national junior road champion who has also claimed a raft of New Zealand age-group titles in cross country and on the track he was predicted to have a golden future and the age of 20 he impressed at the Pacific Conference Games in Canberra winning 1500m bronze and 5000m silver. However, a combination of chronic bout of colitis coupled with a chronic arthritic condition in the foot derailed his career from 1978 for the next five years.

However, defying medical advice that he would no longer be able to run, Geoff successfully returned to the sport and under the coaching of Jack Ralston he impressed during the 1985 campaign.

That winter he snared the Auckland senior men’s cross country title and won a silver medal behind Ken Moloney at the New Zealand Cross Country Championships in Invercargill. Encouraged to target the Oceania team for the World Cup in Canberra in August he posted a swift 13:32 in Mt Smart (this was not officially ratified) and after earning an invite from Nike to run a 5000m in Seoul – where he finished fourth behind John Ngugi who three years later would go on to win the Olympic 5000m title – he returned to New Zealand wondering what next.

“I knew I was running well, and Jack (Ralston) suggested I have a crack at the New Zealand Road Champs in Upper Hutt,” recalls Geoff of the event that took place in October of that year. “I remember it was a nice, fine day about 20C and the race was run back then over ten miles (16km, today the NZ road champs is held over 10km) in Upper Hutt on a 3km circuit. I was confident and in good form, although I knew Paul Ballinger would be tough to beat as he had run 47 minutes for the distance.”

Up against Ballinger and the likes of Ross Thurlow, Derek Froude and Don Greig, Geoff, who was working at the time as a history teacher at Rosmini College on Auckland’s North Shore, knew he faced a highly competitive field, but his confidence soared when the race trundled through the first 10km in a relatively pedestrian 32 minutes.

“I think the slow pace probably suited me, and I felt like I was running on air,” adds Geoff.  “I remember with about 4km to go, Paul went pretty hard and started to crank up the pace and suddenly it was just me and him out the front.

“But just before we approached the final lap, I felt so good I decided to sprint for 400m in around 60 seconds. I think Paul thought I’d miscalculated the laps but as I went through the start-finish on to the last lap, I’d opened up a clear gap.”

From that point on victory was never in doubt for Geoff – who covered the final 3km in a slick 8:10 – and crossed the line in 48:55 for an emphatic 14-second victory from Ballinger with Thurlow claiming bronze.

Geoff went on to compete at the 1986 World Cross Country Championships in Switzerland, but a chronic Achilles problem was to quickly take hold and by the end of the year he unfortunately had to quit athletics.

Yet some 37 years on the retired 65-year-old Aucklander looks back with pride on his road title in Upper Hutt.

“It was one of the highlights (of my career). I’d had a tremendous season that year and the Road champs turned out to be one of the easiest I’d ever felt during a run.”

***The 2022 NZ Road Championships takes place at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS) in Upper Hutt on Sunday 4 September.