Evans eyeing four on the trot
TASMANIAN runner Dylan Evans is gunning for his own slice of history in the Point to Pinnacle half-marathon tomorrow as the first to win the race up Mt Wellington four times in a row.
Evans, of Launceston, won’t be the first to win it four times — that honour has already gone to Rob O’Donnell, who claimed it in 1996, ’97, ’ 99 and 2000 — but he could be the first to claim four on the trot.
His fastest time was 1h25m49s for the summit run in 2015, and he clocked 1hr 11min 7sec last year when an Antarctic blast closed the mountain and saw the event staged as a run to Bracken Lane and return to Wrest Point.
“Last year we were looking at hyperthermia and safety from the cold, and this year it’s going to be heat stress and reminding people to hydrate,” said race director Tim Smith.
“It’s going to be hot, particularly at the back end of the race.
“We are going to have hoses on either side of the road at the Springs spraying people as they come through, and at the Chalet as well.
“We also encourage locals on Huon Rd and Bracken Rd to get out their garden hoses and spray people on their way through.”
Evans could also give the race record (Harry Summers 1:24.09, 2013) a scare.
“To win a fourth would equal one record and four in a row would set another one,” Smith said.
Last year’s runner-up Alan Craigie, of Canberra, shapes up as Evans’s biggest threat
“Potentially those guys will run shoulder to shoulder a fair way up the mountain,” Smith said.
“It will come down to who is having the better day.”
Brian Lyons, of Hobart, clocked a sub-2:30 in the Chicago Marathon last month.
Launceston runner Kate Pedley, the women’s record holder with a best effort of 1:37.53 in 2015, is going for a third win in succession.
Meriem Daoui, runner-up last year, won the City to Casino this year and was seventh overall so her form makes her a threat.
Rower Georgia Nesbitt, a top-five finisher last year and winner of the Freycinet Challenge, is expected to be in the mix.
The 23rd Point to Pinnacle has attracted 3530 competitors, including 410 interstate and 13 overseas runners, coming from Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, Slovakia, Ireland, Denmark, Hong Kong and Germany.