49th Roturua Marathon
49th Lion Foundation Rotorua Marathon – 4 May 2013
Hamilton triathlon coach and personal trainer Erin Furness won the women’s Rotorua Marathon race in 2h 57m 25s, a two minute improvement on her fourth placing last year.
Wellington’s Gabrielle O’Rourke, second last year was second again in 2h 59m 50s, with Candice Hammond of Cambridge third in 3h 3m 1s.
Sam Wreford was a cut above the rest winning by a wide margin of nearly 12 minutes. The 30 year old appliance technician from Timaru took the lead after 12km and went on to finish in the Government Gardens in 2h 22m 23s.
Wreford was content to run with local runner Steven O’Callaghan and Akiyoshi Kamijo of Japan over the early stages of the 42.2km event before knuckling down to a solid pace over the second half. His splits were 1h 14m to the half way at the back of the Lake and 1h 8m.
He recorded the fastest time in the run around the Lake since Jonathan Wyatt won in 2h 20m 50s in 2001. O’Callaghan was second in 2h 34m 12s with Kamijo third in 2h 35m 58s.
Over the past three years Wreford has won the Dunedin, Christchurch and Southland marathons and finished second in the Auckland marathon and last year’s Huntly half marathon.
National marathon champion Tony Payne of Auckland won the associated half marathon in 1h 11m 33s and Rebecca Forlong of Auckland made it two years in a row in the women’s half in 1h 24m 23s.
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