Lydiard Legend Marathon, Shadbolt Park New Lynn – 14 September 2013
Running enthusiast Agustin Scafidi from Argentina made the most of his three week holiday in Auckland by winning the annual Lydiard marathon around the tough Waitakere Ranges course on Saturday.
The 26 year old battled his way through the squally showers to head in Daniel Coates by 46 seconds in 2:56:24. John Caie was third in 2:57:12.
Scafidi said that it was only his second marathon.
“I can’t believe that I’ve just won, I was just lucky. It was a really tough race, I was expecting a tough race but this was so much worse what I was thinking,” he said.
The chef from Buenos Aires has been very impressed with the country.
“It is a really nice country and everyone is so friendly.”
Kirsten Milne of Hamilton City Hawks won the women’s marathon in 3:08:14, a 1:11 improvement on her previous best set in finishing seventh in the 2010 Christchurch marathon.
“I’m actually training for the Auckland marathon, so I just wanted to do this as a training run as I haven’t run this distance for a very long time. It was quite a good course – kind of fun really,” said Milne.
Louise Mark was well back in second recording 3:24:27 with Anna Lorimer third in 3:25:49.
Both Scafidi and Milne picked up a winners purse of $1,500 for their efforts.
Sasha Daniels won Arthur’s half marathon in 1:17:35, from Gavin Spiers 1:19:20 and David Matulovich 1:21:15.
After trying to hang on to Spiers over the early stages Daniels used the main hill to full advantage to move into the lead.
“I went flat out from the top and managed to hold on, it was a great run – a fantastic event,” said Daniels who used the race as part of his training for the adidas Auckland Marathon.
Rachael Kingstone enjoyed the cold and wet conditions to win the women’s half marathon in 1:24:58, well ahead of Maiya Christini 1:30:21 and Nikki Hill 1:30:24.
“This weather kind of suits me, I quite like that sort of thing, like cross country, rain, mud and stuff,” said Kingstone.
The Kerikeri half marathon is next on the programme for Kingstone.
Former New Zealand test cricketer and co-host of the Prime Television sports programme ‘The Crowd goes Wild’, Mark Richardson, who is aiming to break three hours in the Auckland marathon, finished 11th in the marathon in 3:09:56.
Ian Winson founder of the marathon and chairman of the Legend Charitable Trust was pleased with the turn out across all the events, a total of 600 runners.
“The kids are really making a difference to the event now which gives a nice family feel to it now and also the schools are involved with the Lydiard Challenge Cup at stake,” he said.
“Next year is the tenth anniversary so we want to get a really good event next year with big numbers,” he added.
Winson, who was a victim of the gas explosion in Onehunga two years ago subsequently losing both legs, was at the finish to greet each runner as they finished.
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