Peter Handcock (left) is the new Hawkes Bay/Gisborne Senior Men�s Road Race Champion after a start to finish victory in the title race held in Napier on Saturday afternoon. Racing on the Te Awa Ave circuit, the Napier Harrier�s number 1 was unchallenged over the 10km race, his time of 32:31 easily beating the 34:03 of Gisborne�s Glenn Daly. Hastings� Iain Murray was a distant third, a further 1:20 back. It was the first victory of the season for Handcock, who lives in Rotorua but has opted to register with the Napier Club this season. While well off his best, Handcock says he is on schedule for his assault on the NZ Half Marathon Champs which will be held in Napier on November 11.

A start to finish victory was also the order of the day in the Women�s race, as Gisborne�s Karen file showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the field. Raced in conjunction with the Men�s event, and also over the 10km distance, File had only the men�s field for competition as her closest competitor, Hastings Deirdre Nieuwland was nearly 4 minutes behind her, with Nieuwland�s club-mate Andrea Williams a distant third.

Ex champion cyclist, Rob Oliver of the Hastings club, showed that he can �foot it� on the road as well, taking out the veteran men�s race by exactly 1 minute from Napier�s Trevor Fulton. Gisborne�s Bob Carter was another 59 seconds back in third.

The first event on the cards was the 10km Open Walk, which nationally ranked Gabrielle Gorst cut out in an impressive 51:26 to easily take the win. Her Hasting�s club-mate Bob Anderson was second across the line, and first man, with HB Marathon Clinic�s Breige Rendell third.

The under 12�s 2km event was always going to be a race for second and third, with Hastings Harriers Ben Barry untouchable all year. This proved the case once again as Barry ran a superb 6min59sec for the victory. Back in the pack it was race between Barry�s club-mates Ben Biss, and David Norton and the Napier brothers Eric and Brendan Speakman. In the end it was the well thought out and applied tactics of the elder Speakman, Eric (7:39), which prevailed and saw him take second place from a Biss (8:08), who paid the price of trying to hang on to Barry at the start of the race.

The under 14/16 boys and girls raced together with the under 18 girls over a 4km course. Napier team-mates Kane Green and Stefan Smith, both under 16�s, set the pace at the front of the field with Gisborne�s Glenn Barwick (under 14) settling in not far behind them. The group tracked each other for the entire distance with Green slowly pulling ahead to be 12 seconds ahead of Smith at the line, and Barwick taking the under 14 title just 27 seconds further adrift. Napier�s Hogan Green and Andre Smith were second and third in the under 14�s.

Next across the line was Napier sensation, Laura Smidt. Racing in the under 14 grade, Smidt easily accounted for not only her grade but also the under 16 girls, with that grades winner Stef Ward 23 seconds behind. Napier�s Sonya Clark was next to finish to take second under 16 girl and Claire McGettigan was third. Alanna Hambleton and Shayna Heywood made it trifecta for their Napier Club in the under 14 girls, finishing second and third respectively.

Kirsten Foulds, of the Napier club, collected the Women Under 18 title by heading of her club-mate Annike Edmondson by 46 seconds.

Hastings Harriers had it all their own way in the Junior Men 18/20, with their three athletes the only entries in the grade. Racing over a 6km course, Neville Smith (20:13) took the under 20 title from Michael Newton (20:36), while Ramon Stenson won the under 18 grade in 23:03.

The veteran women�s race was always going to be an interesting race, with Hastings Claire Burnard and Napier�s Jo Cavanagh having battled all season. Burnard got the upper hand over Cavanagh by winning the Cross Country Title in July. But Cavanagh had saved her best till the end of the season, her 23:38 for the 6km course easily too good fro her rival, as Burnard finished in 24:50 for second. Third across the line was Napier�s Adele Marsh.

Napier were supreme in the various teams races associated with each grade, the host club taking the Boys under 14/16, Girls under 14/16, Veteran Women�s and Senior/Vet Men�s titles. The Hastings club took the Boys under 12 and Junior Men�s titles.

The Napier club held the third event of their popular �sealed handicap� series in conjunction with the event. In the �sealed handicap�, the handicappers deduct a predetermined amount from the finishing time of the athletes in order to create an even finish and giving any runner the opportunity to �win�. For example, the winner on handicap of the Senior Veteran Men�s race was Don McLeod, whose handicap adjusted time was 31:51, while the race winner Peter Handcock had nothing deducted from his finish time and was second on handicap in 32:31. Third was Trevor Fulton with an adjusted time of 32:44.

Other winners in the handicap series were Brendan Speakman (boys under 12) Kirsten Foulds (girls 18), Andre Smith (boys 14/16), Dianna Best (girls 14/16), and Marion Sherburn (Sen/Vet Women).