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Matariki King and Queen of the Mountain 2024

By Winona Lee 1/7/24


The start line

Some history

The King/Queen of the mountain is one of Owairaka’s longest running events. From what I could see on the cups, the race has been taking place since the late 70s. Christine Munro, an Owai runner, fellow parkrunner, and a back in the day sub 3 hour marathoner told me how the race used to be 5 miles up Mt Albert and back! I am glad we don’t have to do that anymore. I’ve completed this race quite a few times, I even won the Queen of the Mountain cup back in 2014 when competitors were barely in the to double digits.


I have learnt over the years that you mustn’t underestimate the hills. It is very tempting to go out hard as the first 500m is downhill, however, from experience, I can say that you will die on the way back. I have suffered many a time on what I think is the hardest part of race, the steep climb at the end of the race from the cycle way back up to Maioro and Richardson road. 


Race report

On Matariki, 69 runners, which is our biggest event since starting the event back up in 2013, set out on their journey up the maunga. The weather could not have been better! Blue skies and cool temperatures made it ideal for the breaking of Mariano Piagentini’s course record, set just last year. And that is exactly what happened!


The first place finisher was Jack Sneddon, an Oratian, in a new course record of 16:32. Oratia athletes have been competing in this race for a number of years now, and they are often very speedy, as seen this year. The women’s champion was also from Oratia, Amy Thomson took it out in 19:44. Congrats you two, and we really appreciate Oratia for your support for this event.


Nick Moore equalled the previous course record of 16:37, coming in second place. I first met Nick at this race back in 2014. Pretty sure he finished at least 5 minutes ahead of anyone else then. What’s funny is that he actually cut the course short as he missed going around the top of Mt Roskill. However, I think it was agreed he still would have won the race regardless of whether he added a 150m loop.


Tamara Clark was second in the female category. Shout out to the two U18 athletes who podiumed. Jacob Hewitt came third and Ayawa Sotome, actually an U14, also came third in the Queen of the Mountain. 


In the Tamariki 2.5k run, first place was Aidan Jarrold on the boys' side, and Annika Vashi on the girls'. Aidan was our only sub 9 minute finisher, coming in in a speedy time of 8:53. Annika finished in 9:36, with her sister, Grace finishing around 20 seconds behind her to take out second place. Both the Brunton siblings ran very well and podiumed with Izzy finishing third in the girls category and her brother, Josh, finishing second in the boys. Neil Cheetham was third for the boys. Congrats to all the Tamariki on their awesome running. It was very cool to see you all coming the opposite way to us, although I did feel quite jealous that you guys were almost finished, and I was only 1km in.  


Thanks to the whole team at Owai for another great event. The soup was delicious and the scones, shoutout to Kate, were very scrumptious. Pete and Julie were an awesome timing/results duo. Nick set up the course. Kate was awesome on the media and registration side. Thanks to all the marshals. 


And thanks to you all for your generous koha - we raised over $700 to kickstart our koha for kicks fund ✨


Event photos/videos



Podium

5k King of the Mountain 

1st - Jack Sneddon (new course record) 

2nd - Nick Moore 

3rd - Jacob Hewitt (1st U18) 


5k Queen of the Mountain

1st - Amy Thomson 

2nd - Tamara Clark 

3rd - Ayawa Sotome (2nd U14) 


5k King/Queen of the Mountain (junior)

U18:

1st - Jacob Hewitt 

2nd - Jackson Pinique 

3rd - Kalaia Sorby 


U14: 

1st - Ben Collinge 

2nd - Ayawa Sotome 


2.5k Tamariki run 

Boys

1st - Aidan Jarrold 

2nd - Josh Brunton 

3rd - Ollie Cheetham 

Girls 

1st - Annika Vashi 

2nd - Grace Vashi 

3rd - Izzy Brunton 



Results

First

Last

Category

2.5/5k

Placing

Placing

Time

Jack

Snedden

18+

5

1st overall


16:32

Nick

Moore

18+

5

2nd overall


16:37

Jacob

Hewitt

U18

5

3rd overall

1st U18

17:47

Naoki

Toyomura

18+

5



18:00

Nick

Panett

18+

5



18:03

Adam

Gallagher

18+

5



18:06

Jack

Clendon

18+

5



18:32

Daniel

Coates

18+

5



18:36

Jackson

Pinique

U18

5


2nd U18

18:45

James

Fisher

18+

5



19:02

Paul

White

18+

5



19:06

Gavin

Lloyd

18+

5



19:25

Kalaia

Sorby

U18

5


3rd U18

19:35

Jakub

Kalinowski

18+

5



19:37

Amy

Thomson

U18

5

1st F


19:44

Keith

Burrows

18+

5



19:49

Ben

Collinge

U14

5


1st U14

19:57

Tamara

Clarke

18+

5

2nd F


20:05

Nathan

Trotman

18+

5



20:27

Hugh

Sorby

18+

5



20:50

Chris

Lawrence

18+

5



20:58

Ayawa

Sotome

U14

5

3rd F

2nd U14

20:59

James

Clendon

18+

5



21:11

James

Parker

18+

5



21:14

Elliott

Lowe

18+

5



21:14

Jerym

Brunton

18+

5



21:34

Charlie

Li

18+

5



21:54

Anthony

Lo

18+

5



22:10

Lani

Dodds

18+

5



22:12

Tharindu

Jayasinghe

18+

5



22:14

Ryan

Walker

18+

5



22:22

Kate

Thomas

18+

5



22:27

Georgie

Collinge

U18

5



22:41

Kelly

Rouse

18+

5



22:48

Namiko

Kelly

18+

5



23:04

Ella

Pracy

U18

5



23:35

Winona

Lee

18+

5



24:27

Sarah

Lewington

18+

5



24:41

Jonathan

Cowley

18+

5



25:20

David

Lockhart

18+

5



25:21

Zachary

Thomson

18+

5



25:31

Natasha

Wade

18+

5



26:00

Mark

Joblin

18+

5



26:38

Gayleen

Vashi

18+

5



27:18

Stephen

Thomson

18+

5



27:48

Nicola

Collinge

18+

5



28:16

Christine

Munro

18+

5



29:03

Jess Holly

Bates

18+

5



31:19

Chloe

de Ruyter

18+

5



33:32

Melanie

Trotman

18+

5



36:27

Rita

Paton

18+

5



39:43

Kevin

Burge

18+

5



40:56

Neil

Cheetham

18+

2.5



09:33

Aidan

Jarrold

U14

2.5

1st overall


08:53

Josh

Brunton

U14

2.5

2nd overall


09:05

Ollie

Cheetham

U14

2.5

3rd overall


09:10

Annika

Vashi

U14

2.5

1st F


09:36

Liam

Jarrold

U14

2.5



09:51

Grace

Vashi

U14

2.5

2nd F


09:54

Izzy

Brunton

U14

2.5

3rd F


10:07

Revanth

Kishore

U14

2.5



10:36

Maelee

Sotome

U14

2.5



11:27

Niamh

Lloyd

U14

2.5



11:47

Mason

Ma

U14

2.5



11:48

Aisline

Lloyd

U14

2.5



13:27

Logan

Ma

U14

2.5



14:07

Tessa

Boow

U14

2.5



16:08

Nora

Lawrence

U14

2.5



20:57

Bridget

Lawrence

18+

2.5



20:58


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Awesome report Winona!

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