Masters runners make marks | Northland News | Local News in Northland

The small team of Hatea Harriers and Athletic Whangarei runners who competed in the New Zealand Masters' Road Running championships over 10km in Wellington made a huge hit.

On Sunday, Whangarei's Ian Calder won gold, in 34m 42s, in the highly competitive 50-54 years' grade, and three Hatea runners starred. Anson Clapcott won gold in the M65-69 race, Judith Bradshaw took silver in the W60-64 grade and John Kent came fifth in the M60-64 grade.

While extremely pleased with his gold medal run, Ian Calder is already focused on his next race and was out on a 7km run first-thing yesterday. "I'm now training for the Whangarei Marathon. I'm in Nelson for a week and I'll train twice a day down here and I'm trying to get up to 120km a week.

"The course yesterday was a quite tight 2km circuit around the waterfront with some sharp turns," Calder said.

Calder, whose grade is 50-51 years, ran with younger runners and finished fifth overall, well up with runners of 35-39 years, 40-45 years and 40-49 years.

Anson Clapcott achieved his ambition to win gold in the 65-69 grade and was close to the record for a 68-year-old, finishing in 40m 5s, more than a minute ahead of Canterbury University's Michael Bond who was expected to claim gold, but had to settle for silver.

Bradshaw made a welcome return to form, running 22m 39s, and adding the New Zealand Women's 60-64 silver to the Northland W60-64 she won at the Northland Road Running Championships, on August 6.

John Kent also came into good form, following up his gold in the Northland championships' M60-64 with fifth in the tough M60-64 grade. His time was 39m 58s.