The Ponydales are organised by the Leith Harrier & Athletic Club Inc.
and this year took place at the Dunedin Pony Club, Three Mile Hill, Dunedin on Saturday 15 May 2010

Provisional Results >> Results (feedback is requested to check for any possible errors and yes, someone left their spikes behind) - Email Athletics Otago
Ponydales 2010 Photo Albums >> Photo Albums (updated regularly this week as photos come through of the Ponydales)

Updated Friday, 21-May-2010 10:00 PM

2010 Ponydales Senior Men's race "Too close to call" see ODT news lead article by Alistair McMurran >> Athletics Otago Media releases

Roy anchors University to relay victory - see ODT news lead article by Wayne Parsons >> Athletics Otago Media releases

Race report summary - provisional results are now out!

Provisional Results >> Results (feedback is requested to check for any possible errors and yes, someone left their spikes behind) - Email Athletics Otago

Open Men's Race (Race Four)

Caversham's No.1 team has won the Leith XC Relays Open Men's title after a tough battle with the strong Ariki A team over the 2.8km course. In an extraordinary display of cross-country running Steve O'Callaghan had his non-contesting Leith 2 team leading at the first change by four seconds over the second placed Ariki A's Dougal Thorburn.
Thorburn had kept his team well in contention securing a vital 28 second lead over the defending champion's Caversham 1, although Bevan Stevens had Caversham 2 lying third at this stage. Ollie O'Sullivan had Hill City threatening and lying a narrow fourth and Lyndon "Browno" Brown kept the Caversham 1 team close just one second back from Hill City. However, the likely contenders were soon to emerge once the second lap had been completed. This was through the efforts of Caversham 1's Tony Payne who had the edge over the Ariki A's Tim Dobier bringing his team back into the picture at the changeover with Ariki A's lead now whittled down to only 3 seconds. Hill City 1 was still in with a chance after a fine lap by Alex Gorrie to have it lying just 12 seconds off the pace. Leith 2 had fallen off the pace with Alan Funnell already having run in the masters race and looking to hold out the Leith 1 team for line honours.
Meanwhile the real battle for first was emerging. Callan Moody stilled the panic in the Ariki ranks with a fine run to increase the lead to ten seconds at the changeover. Caversham 1's Peter Meffan tried his best to close the gap on Moody but was unable to stop the Ariki runner from giving his team an extra advantage with just one lap to go. No other team was really in contention at this stage as Hill City 1 had fallen behind somewhat after the second changeover.
Now it was really down to Ariki's Nathan "Guns' Baxter versus Caversham's Daniel Balchin. It could be said that having a ten second advantage gives one an edge, but it can be like a double-edged sword on a course like the Ponydales. The crucial decision Guns had to make once he was in that situation was how to pace himself up that first hill - does he run as hard as he can to try to put even more space between himself and Balchin or does he tackle it conservatively. This is never an easy decision to make and given the quality of the chasing Balchin, a very very difficult one. One could almost say that the advantage lay with the chasing athlete on this course.
This contest was a classic contest between two quality athletes - the inherent 800m/1500m track runner (Guns) versus the "all rounder" (Balchin). It seemed the "all rounder" should have the edge on a course of this nature and in the end this adage proved to be true. Guns gave his heart and soul in a tremendous effort for his team, while Balchin showed what a great competitor he is by gradually whittling away at Gun's lead having taken a conservative approach on the first hill preferring to let Guns set the pace. A bit of confusion on the downhill to the second uphill slowed Gun's momentum as he veered slightly off-course. He scrambled back onto the correct path but he may have lost some advantage there. However, Balchin proved the stronger over the upper paddock and was leading by the last downhill into the finish. Guns tried to stay with Balchin over the last 200 metres but Balchin had done the work giving Caversham line honours over Ariki by just eleven seconds. Hill City finished in third place. Well done to all these teams for presenting a great contest for the spectators and to Caversham for defending its title and for the Ariki never-say-die attitude.
More on this report this evening.... with fastest time news and other relevant stuff.

Senior Women's Race (Race two)

After a fierce tussle with the Hill City's No. 1 team over the 2km course, Otago University's No. 1 team won the Open Women's title for only the third time having previously won in 1997 and 1998 . Hannah Newbould (W19) blitzed around the 2km course in record-breaking time to secure an important psychological advantage of 16 seconds over her team's most likely challenger. Hill City 1's Rachel Kingsford did well to stay in contact and with Leith's Kirsty Morris also having a great run for Leith 1 in handing the changeover to Megan Balchin with Leith lying third just 6 seconds adrift of second placed Hill City there appeared to be an exciting race on the cards.
Balchin didn't disappoint either and with a determined run, she was second fastest on the second lap and kept Leith in the picture being just 3 seconds behind Hill City's Taryn McLeod at the second changeover. McLeod had attempted to not allow the Otago University runner Andrea Peat get away from her and she partly succeeded in this having her team trailing by 27 seconds at the second changeover. Would the lead Newbould and Peat had built prove to be too much for the talented Hill City team? With the extremely talented young W19 runner, Rebekah Greene taking over from McLeod there may have been some doubt as to whether Otago University could hold out.
As talented as Otago University's W19 runner Grace Fursdon is, all knew that she had the unenviable task of holding out a fast closing Greene. The talented Greene ate up the gap between the two teams and by the changeover was a second in front of Fursdon. This battle between Fursdon and Greene only served to extinguish the challenge from Leith who by now had faded to be about a minute behind and alone in third place despite a solid run by Sarah Toomey..
Now the race was really on, with nothing separating Hill City's Shireen Crumpton and Otago University's Barbara Roy at the start of the last lap. The younger legs of Roy proved to be too much for the master runner Crumpton, with Roy drawing away to bring the title back to Otago University, after a 12 year wait, with a 28 second win over Hill City. Leith's Rosie Hodson did not throw in the towel and made sure of third place for her team.

Master Men's 35 Race (Race One)

In the first race of the day, the Hill City Master Men's 35 No. 1 team had a battle on its hands to defend its 2009 title. After a close battle with the Leith MM35 No. 1 team in which the lead changed a number of times, it finally prevailed.
Mike Wakelin (Hill City) and Andrew Lonie (Leith) continued their rivalry from this year's Lovelocks Relays where Lonie had prevailed. However, the tables were turned this time round on a totally different type of course. Wakelin relished the hilly and lumpy conditions and despite Lonie's best efforts, this time it was Wakelin who finished first in record-breaking time to give Hill City a vital 17 second advantage at the first changeover. First Brent Halley (Ariki 1) and Andrew Hall (Hill City 2) had finished within a second of each other to keep their teams in third and fourth position respectively about 30 seconds back at the first changeover. Ray Knox had Leith 2 another 30 seconds further behind in fifth position. It seemed the winner was likely to come from one of these five teams, although in reality it was really a contest between Hill City 1 and Leith 1 for first and second place and the rest for the coveted third place.
Wakelin handed Kevin Duggan a 17 second lead over Leith's Alan Funnell and Duggan knew that he was in for the race of his life against the redoubtable Funnell - one of the toughest competitors around at the moment. Funnell set about his task in his usual unflappable manner, eating away at Duggan's lead. This was a course suited to the tough Funnell while Duggan probably wished he were running on the Caledonian track. Funnell achieved second fastest time on his lap to pass Duggan and give Leith a handy 15 second lead at the 2nd changeover. Now it was Leith 1 on the front foot. Richard Fogarty meanwhile had hauled Hill City 2 into third position at the second changeover and Peter Frew had done an excellent job in keeping Leith 2 in contention by eating into Hill City 2's lead, passing Ariki 1's Graham Helm and bringing his team into fourth place at the changeover. Just 20 seconds now separated Hill City 2 and Leith 2 in the battle for third place line honours.
With a 15 second buffer between himself and the strong Ariki 1 runner Kerrin Williams, David Rush (Leith 1) set about his task of keeping his team in front. Williams is one of those runners in which this course brings out the best and this happened on the day. He overhauled Rush to bring his team once again into the lead with just a two second advantage. This was the first of the contests of the day where there was nothing in it with just one lap to go. Julian O'Hagan had brought Leith 2 even closer to third position at the last changeover giving Richard Hendry the easier target of 9 seconds to make up on Hill City 2's Steve Bloomfield. Having narrowly failed to make the strong Leith 1 team, Hendry was one of the quality runners in the field. This was something Bloomfield was about to find out.
With a two second advantage handed to him by his team, Richard Murphy (Hill City 1) scampered away from Leith's Glen Ferguson to take the race away from Leith despite Ferguson's best efforts. Murphy's younger legs gave him a significant advantage over the veteran campaigner Ferguson and Murphy in one of the fastest runs of the day secured the title for Hill City for the second year in a row with a 13 second triumph over Leith. Hendry brought Leith 2 into third place with an 11 second triumph over Hill City 2. Once again this was another close contest between the Leith and Hill City for line honours in this tough grade.

Master Women's 35 Race (Race two)

The strong Leith Master Women's 35 team surged to what was in the end a comfortable win in the Master Women's 35 race over the 2km lap course. Louisa Andrew (Leith) made a statement with fastest time of the day for this grade to put Leith firmly on the path to victory. Ariki's Julie Wilson tried her best but the younger Andrew gave Leith an insurmountable lead of 46 seconds at the first changeover. Experienced campaigner Jan Craig knew that despite this huge lead this was not the time to let up the pressure. The advantage had to be rammed home against the dangerous Ariki and Caversham teams. So Graig set out on a solid run to extend Leith's lead even further to 1 minute 13 seconds at the second changeover over the Ariki and Caversham teams. Caversham's Maria Sleeman had an awesome run to whittle down Ariki's lead finishing neck and neck with Ariki's Carol Chettleburgh at the second changeover.
With this 1 minute 13 second advantage over both Ariki and Caversham, Leith's Jill Alexander was ruthless on her run never letting these teams get back into the picture. Ariki's Robyn Pearson tried her best but had to be content to see Alexander draw even further away from her. Alexander never let up the pace and handed Leith's Sue Cuthbert a lead of 2 minutes 18 seconds over Caversham at the third changeover. Caversham's Claire Giles had brought her team into second place at the third changeover with a lead of 18 seconds over Ariki. The writing was on the wall for Caversham or Ariki now in their attempt to wrest control from Leith. Barring something untoward happening, Leith was on its way to a comfortable victory. Cuthbert set the second fastest time in this race in her grade to bring Leith to an emphatic win over Ariki despite Dalise Sanderson trying her utmost to bring something out of this race for her team. However, Sanderson had the satisfaction of bringing Ariki comfortably into second place with Caversham's Vickie Astle unable to sustain the lead her team had over Ariki. The winners from last year, Caversham, had to be content with third place.

Women 16 & Under

With Anna Kean to start and the rest of the team all set to run around the 9 minute mark each on this course, the other teams knew that it would be a battle to contain the talented Ariki Girls 16 team. Anna Kean set the standard with what was to prove the fastest time for this grade. She put her team a minute ahead of fellow club team Ariki Girls 14 who's first up runner Hanna English had put in a sterling effort to keep her team in the picture. It was not clear which team would mount the best challenge at this stage but we were soon to find out.
Hill City 1's Katrina Andrews brought her team into contention with third fastest time while Ariki Girls 16's Jessica Todd had continued the work of Kean in maintaining most of the vital lead her team had had at the first changeover. Ariki Girls 14 fell away a bit on the second lap relinquishing its second position to Hill City 1.
Todd handed Danielle De Caigney a 2 minute 15 second advantage over the next best team, Hill City 1 at the third changeover. De Caigney just continued with the good work putting even more distance between her team and the rest. Charlotte Homan of Hill City 1 tried her best to get back at De Caigney and although she had a very good run had to be content to see the Ariki Girls 16 team seemingly destined for victory. It now looked like a battle for second place was on the cards for the other teams.
Once De Caigney handed Sian English a lead of 2 minutes 47 seconds over Hill City 1, the writing was on the wall. The talented English was not about to let any team get a whiff of victory and by setting the second fastest time had her team winning by three minutes over second placed Hill City 1, whose last runner Sophie Russell ran one of the fastest times in the grade ensuring her team of second place over third placed Hill City 2.

Men 16 & Under

Unfortunately for the Ariki Men 16 & Under team, no other club had entered teams in this grade. However, the team did not let this get in the way of trying its best to compete against the Master Men's 35 and 50 teams. Rhys Bayley set an excellent pace over the course which was to prove to be the fastest lap from this team. He brought his team to the changeover in a handy seventh place. Peter Molteno took over for the second lap and he kept up the good work to maintain the team's position at the second changeover. The pressure from the veterans was beginning to make itself felt and Edan Feint had a difficult time keeping in contact with these experienced runners but he managed to lose only one position by the last changeover when he handed to Jack Bloomfield. Bloomfield did his best to make up a few positions but with these veterans having some of their fastest runners on the last lap, it was always going to be a difficult task. However, he put in a good solid run and managed to bring his team home in 8th position of the total teams in race one and obviously first in its grade. It would be good to see the clubs putting more effort into getting M16 teams together for next year.

Master Men's 50 Race

Ariki fielded a strong team to take on traditional rivals Leith in an attempt to defend the title they had won narrowly from Leith in 2009. Unfortunately, only Leith and Ariki fielded teams in a grade that has many runners from each club from which to choose teams. However, Ariki and Leith prepared to do battle. New Leith over 50 runner Stuart Hodges was having his first race as an over 50 and he relished the opportunity. He and Ariki's Phil Napper had a right royal battle out there with Hodges getting to the first changeover just five seconds ahead of Napper and getting third fastest time in this grade. Leith's Graham Anderson set off with a five second advantage over Ariki's Mike Wilson and although giving away a few years in age, did not let this unsettle him and he never let Wilson get away from him. At the second changeover Wilson handed Russell Hurring a four second advantage over Leith's third runner, Bill Kenny who at over 70 was by far the oldest runner out of these two teams. Kenny always gives his all in any race and this was to be no exception but he was never going to stay with the ultra-distance veteran Hurring, let alone make up any leeway. Hurring powered away to a best time out of these two teams and his grade and gave his team a 3 minute 31 second advantage over Leith at the last changeover. Leith's Marc Boulle who took over from Kenny, knew that it was virtually a hopeless task to get back at Ariki who had the redoubtable Gene Sanderson on the last lap. But in races of this nature who knows what can happen? Today however, nothing untoward was going to happen and Sanderson put in a trademark run to finish with second fastest time for the grade just 2 seconds shy of Hurring's best time. Sanderson ensured his that Ariki successfully defended its title with a win by a margin of 4 minutes 51 seconds over its old adversaries.

Social/Mixed/Composite

The Otago University Mixed team looked like the likely team to win this grade with the others fighting it out for second and third, although in the end it was made to battle most of the way. University's Luke O'Connor took his team into the first changeover with a six second advantage over Ariki/Bayfield whose first up runner Anthony Trainor had stayed in contact with O'Connor throughout to keep his team in contention. O'Connor ended up with fastest time in this race with Trainor second fastest. It looked like Otago University Mixed had a race on its hand as the Ariki/Bayfield second change runner Josh Browne also set a fast time around the course to give his team a significant lead of 71 seconds over Otago University Mixed team. Emily Wilson had kept up a steady pace to keep the University team in contact and in a tenuous second position with the Taieri team looking to threaten after good runs from Aaron Sanderson and Mike Weddell.
Third runner Nathan Waters extended Ariki/Bayfield's lead even further at the last changeover to 1 minute 53 seconds over University's Riana Calman and it looked like an upset was on the cards. Taieri 1 had fallen off the pace during this lap and the Caversham Cookies had taken over third position at the changeover and were looming as a real threat after excellent runs by Olivia Robb, Ken Fahey and Ian McDonald who are all experienced runners and with a runner like John Landreth to finish an exciting end was in sight. However, University had a talented runner Sam Jardin-Coom to finish for it and a runner of his calibre was always in with a chance to get his team up for a win. In the end he finished with the third fastest run in this race to overtake Ariki/Bayfield's Robbie Gwyn-Jones bringing his team to victory with 57 seconds to spare. Gwyn-Jones ran well enough to ensure that the ever threatening Caversham Cookies had to make do with third placing 33 seconds adrift. Landreth ran well to eat into Ariki/Bayfield's lead knowing that it was unlikely he would catch Gwyn-Jones but he made sure that the Taieri 1 team never got the coveted third placing.

12 & Under Boys race

Hill City Boys looked like the team to beat in the 4 x approx. 800m relay race. The other teams however had other ideas. Caversham Black's Ross Stinson and Leith's Sebastian Sole were neck and neck with Stinson enjoying a slight 2 second lead over Sole at the first changeover. Hill City's Matthew Ogle was just a further 6 seconds back. Oliver Chignell was the second change runner for Hill City and he set about bringing his team into the lead with a fastest lap time. Leith's Andrew Koens ran an excellent race to bring his team into second place at the second changeover just 20 seconds off the lead. Oliver Molteno with an excellent second fastest time race to put his team even further ahead of the threatening Leith team. Reuben Knox ran well to keep Leith firmly in second place at the third and last changeover when he handed to Jonty Horwell. However, Hill City's Aston Wilson had a handy 30 second lead over the chasing Leith team at the start of the last lap. Wilson proceeded to drive the nail firmly home with a run that gave him the third fastest time in his grade and he cantered his team home to victory by 67 seconds over Leith. Leith's Jonty Horwell did well to hold Leith to second place by just 7 seconds over Ariki whose team of Daniel Bromley, Elliot Cross, Kurtis Haan and Rory O'Neill had run well to secure third position.

12 & Under Girls race

There didn't appear to be a clear favourite in this race and so it transpired that it was a very close run affair. In what was to be the fastest run in this grade, pole vaulter Rosie Craven took her Hill City Girls into the lead at the first changeover with an 11 second advantage over Leith's first runner and nearest challenger, Alice Cuthbert. Francesco Chignell set off to consolidate Hill City's lead but Leith's Heidi Aarsen was having none of that and chased after her determined not to let Hill City get too much of a lead. Aarsen set the second fastest time in this grade by the time she handed over to Katie Hendry at the second changeover. She had brought Leith a second closer to Hill City whose runner Chignell had set a cracking pace from the outset to get third fastest time. Hill City's third runner, Jessie Murphy now had a buffer of only 10 seconds over Leith. And with Hendry and Murphy both running the same time for the lap this 10 second buffer remained for Hill City's Lucy Cathro over Leith's Erin Knox for the final lap. The Ariki Girls team of Kirsty Little, Annabel Latta and Jodie Little had brought their team into possible contention with Little's run being one of the fastest of the day in this grade. Erin Knox had to be aware of the Ariki danger behind her as she set about chasing after Cathro. This was exciting stuff and Knox proved to be equal to the task. Cathro was under pressure here and the race was looking to go down to the wire. Knox and Ariki's Erin O'Brien closed the gap and on the last turn into the straight it was anyone's race. However, Knox lost her footing in the process and Cathro took the title for Hill City Girls by just 6 seconds from Leith with the fast finishing O'Brien bringing Ariki Girls into third place. The Caversham Pink team of Hayley Sleeman, Emily Rades, Emma Black and Claudia Maker tried its best but were unable to make any impression on the leaders.

12 & Under Mixed Race

Although there were only three teams in this grade race, there was some keen competition. Hill City Mixed runner Theo Molteno took his team into the lead at the first changeover with a gap of 10 seconds over the Ariki Mixed's Jordon Frost. It was all in the family here as Hill City's second runner Linus Molteno and Ariki's Maykayla Frost diced it out on the second lap. Frost ensured that Ariki enjoyed a 2 second lead over Hill City at the second changeover.
Ariki's Hanna English continued the good work and increased her team's lead over Hill City, despite a good run by Anna Jamieson. At the last changeover Hill City had fallen behind and now had 18 seconds to make up if it wanted to challenge. However, Laney Keenan was up to the task and ensured that Hill City won the race with 7 seconds to spare despite a good run by Ariki's Benjamin Lund. The Leith Mixed team of Sam Cuthbert, Emma Horwell, Aaron Allan and Bruce Knox tried gamely but were never in contention finishing third behind second placed Ariki Mixed.

General Information and details about the 2010 Ponydales:
NO DOGS ARE ALLOWED ON THE PROPERTY

The Ponydales are organised by:

Leith Harrier & Athletic Club Inc.

Saturday 15 May 2010

Venue:  Dunedin Pony Club facility, Three Mile Hill Road, Halfway Bush, opposite the Dalziel Road intersection. Plenty of parking will be available via the Pony Club entrance opposite the Dalziel Road intersection - the upper parking area next to the clubhouse is for officials only.

Race 1
12:45pm, 4 x 2000 metres

Masters Men 35, Masters Men 50+
Entry fee: $10 per team member

Boys 16 & Under
Entry Fee: $5 per team member

Race 2
1:30pm, 4 x 2000 metres

Open Women (including W19 & under)
Masters Women 35
Composite/Social/Mixed
Entry Fee: $10 per team member

Girls 16 & under
Entry fee: $5 per team member

Race 3
2:25pm, 4 x 650 metres approx

Boys 12 and Under
Girls 12 and Under
Mixed 12 and under
No entry fees

Race 4
2:40pm, 4 x 3000 metres (" Due to land ownership changes the Open Men course and distance may be subject to change)

Open Men (including M19 & under)
Entry fee: $10 per team member

NO DOGS ARE ALLOWED ON THE PROPERTY

Entries close on Monday 10 May 2010 at 10.00pm with Margaret Knox 83 Glenross Street, Dunedin, phone 4766288, email athleticsotago@xtra.co.nz (email option preferred)
Please enter first names as well as surnames on entry forms.
Ages for Masters and kids 12 & Under is age on the day of the race, for other age group teams is age as at the 31/12/2009.
If runners are competing for teams not in their own grade please indicate the runner's grade on the entry form.
ANY TEAM CHANGES MUST BE HANDED IN AT LEAST 10 MINUTES PRIOR TO THE EVENT WHEN COLLECTING TEAM NUMBERS
Entry fees must be paid at time of entry or at the latest on the day of the race.
Entry fees are not refundable after closing date. If a team is entered and is withdrawn after the closing date, payment for this team is still expected.
All team numbers must be returned together to the box provided. Clubs will be invoiced for missing team numbers.

BBQ food and drinks will be available for people to purchase during the afternoon.

Afternoon tea and the prize giving will be held in the Pony Club rooms following the completion of the final race.

Certificates will be awarded to the first three teams in each grade.

NO DOGS ARE ALLOWED ON THE PROPERTY