It’s another national title for Nelson’s Lautenslager
Craig Lautenslager and Sally Gibbs won the New Zealand men’s and women’s 10,000m titles in Inglewood on Saturday.
With dominant displays, taking the lead from the gun and both running a relentless pace, neither were in doubt in their respective races.
Tasman’s Lautenslager had Michael Voss for company for the early laps, but the Waikato athlete could not hold on to the tough pace and faded to sixth place by the end of the race.
The 24-year-old from Nelson continued a persistent pace, knocking out the early kilometres in under three minutes and although the early speed took its toll later in the race, Lautenslager continued and took out the title in 29min 51.97sec.
The title adds to Lautenslager’s growing list of New Zealand championship titles, having also picked up the national cross country and half marathon titles in 2017 since returning from a scholarship in the USA.
Gibbs retained her 10,000m title to claim her sixth New Zealand senior championship win, all claimed since turning 48.
She struck out from the gun and had a 40m lead on the chasers after the first of 25 laps. She continued to increase the lead for the duration of the race, crossing the fin- ish line in 36min22.10sec, 16 seconds faster than last year’s win and over a minute clear of second placed Ayesha Shafi with Auckland’s Alannah Van Hout in third.