Couple winners of Clocktower race
ATHLETICS
JOHN Gerber called it ‘‘couple goals’’.
Perhaps there was something to that as well.
Eliza Meekings had not even intended on running in the annual University Clocktower race.
She had been there to support her boyfriend, Gerber, before deciding to enter half an hour before the start.
It turned out to be a good decision.
The couple claimed the fastest man and fastest woman titles at the race, which attracted about 50 runners.
Gerber completed the 370m track in a sharp time of 48.23sec.
He beat home Cameron Moffitt and Josh Hou home, and all of them beat the chimes.
A secondyear biochemistry student, Gerber (19) finished second behind Shay Veitch last year.
He had not known the event was being held this year, but was cycling home from the physio with race organiser Jared Monk on Thursday night and decided to enter.
An accomplished 400m runner from Rangiora, he has won the national title in the under20 grade the past two years.
This year he will take the step up to the senior men’s grade at the championships next weekend.
Meekings (18) followed him home as the first woman in 55.27sec.
A pole vaulter from Christchurch, she had decided to enter at the last minute and winning had not even crossed her mind.
She was thrilled with the result and said the event had been a good one.
Meekings is a firstyear student, studying for a bachelor of arts in physical science and classics, as well as firstyear law.
A back injury had put her out of pole vault for the season, although she said it had felt all right while running.
The race was resurrected by Monk in 2019 after a decade’s hiatus.
It had been a regular fixture of Orientation Week throughout the 1990s and 2000s, inspired by the film Chariots of Fire.
In its first year back, it attracted only eight runners but its second had drawn 28, and that number nearly doubled this year.