Southlanders put in strong performances at NZ Mountain Running Champs

Southland has done rather well at Mountain Running in recent times.

Buddy Small, Richard Ford, Dwight Grieve and Jack Beaumont have all represented New Zealand at World

Championships overseas.

Living in the mountains is an advantage, says some. Not necessarily.

While Grieve and Ford have the mountains of Te Anau at their doorstep, Beaumont lived at Winton and Small at Woodlands, neither particularly mountainous.

Fast forward to the 2022 national champs held at Deer Park Heights, Queenstown.

Runners fromSouthland clubs were as usual prominent.

Two of the best performances came from host club, Queenstown. Local knowledge may have played a part but local knowledge or not, there is no disputing the dominance of Siena Mackley and Sarah Douglas in their NZ championship winning runs.

Mackley triumphed in the U20 women’s grade by almost a minute with St Paul’s Kennedy Taylor taking the bronze medal. The 14-year-old was a late entrant, persuaded by event co-organiser Neville Britton to take part.

Britton happens to be Siena’s coach and his faith in the young distance star was well founded.

Britton also coaches Sarah Douglas, the other Southlander to claim a championship.

Douglas had just recovered from Covid and at 38 qualified for shorter masters race so the win by over 2 minutes in the senior grade was all the more meritorious. This was her third NZ Mountain Champs victory, taking the titles back in 2014 and 2016.

The NZ Champs was also a selection race for the world championship. Mackey, although a likely contender for the NZ team is too young – you have to be 18 to compete in the world championships.

The same situation faced James McLeay (StP) who finished a strong 2nd (by only 25 seconds) in the U20 men’s race. At 16 he too is not eligible for selection to a NZ world championship team.

In the masters men’s race Kelvin Mead (StP) chased and passed ex-NZ World Mountain Champs rep Dwight Grieve (Fiordland) in the last km to finish second overall.

However, both claimed gold medals, Mead winning the 40-44 grade and Grieve the 45-48 race.

A description by some was “breath taking”: Whether they meant the scenery or the effort was not disclosed. Probably both.

Full Southland Results:

Lewis Blay (StP) 1st 4.7k 28.44

James McLeay (StP) 2nd U20 5.8km 27.25

Ben Scott (StP) 4th U20 5.8km 28.10

Jude Deaker (Qtwn) 6th U20 5.8km 29.08

Lucas Huia (Inv) 8th U20 5.8km 30.53

Siena Mackley (Qtwn) 1st U20 5.8km 31.16

Kennedy Taylor (StP) 3rd u20 5.8km 34.31

Buddy Small (StP) 10th SM 8.6km 41.51

Benny Britton (Qtwn) 11th SM 8.6km 42.19