Hamish preparing for China
A South Taranaki liquor store manager was hit in the stomach with a litre bottle of spirits during an aggravated robbery involving three teen offenders, police said. Black Bull Liquor, on High Street, Hawera, was robbed about 4.30pm on Saturday and Detective Sergeant Chris Allemann said the manager was allegedly assaulted by the trio when he tried to stop them leaving the store. Allemann said the man was struck in the stomach with a bottle of spirits but did not suffer any significant injury. The group is alleged to have stolen four one-litre bottles of bourbon and eight 50-gram packets of tobacco. Allemann said a 16-yearold boy was arrested yesterday in connection with the aggravated robbery and will appear in court this week. Two other offenders, aged 15 and 19, have been identified by police but have yet to be apprehended, he said.
A meet the candidates meeting for the New Plymouth district north ward by-election will be held at the Knox Church in Waitara tonight at 7pm. Five candidates, Jonathan Marshall, Vicky Dombroski, John Williams, Bill Simpson and Pam Street are standing for the position that was left vacant when long-time Waitara councillor and deputy mayor Craig McFarlane resigned after suffering a stroke earlier this year.
All seven commercial premises forced to close due to the myrtle rust outbreak in Taranaki in May have resumed trading, the Ministry for Primary Industries says. They were among 55 commercial, sports and private premises found by MPI staff to be infected with the fungal rust disease throughout the region. MPI provided the information following a request under the Official Information Act. MPI readiness and response services director Geoff Gwyn said seven out of 44 commercial properties in Taranaki had trading temporarily suspended after they were affected with myrtle rust. Five businesses had applied for financial compensation and claims were currently being processed, Gwyn said. A record third successive win in Queenstown’s Peak to Peak multisport event has former New Plymouth adventure racer Hamish Fleming ready to tackle more strenuous challenges for upcoming races in China.
The Queenstown-based Fleming comfortably won his third Remarkables to Coronet Peak event in a row with a time of 2 hours and 17 minutes, almost 10 minutes ahead of the next competitor on Saturday.
‘‘I’m really stoked to have won and have my name put on the trophy with some other big names in multisport, like Richard Ussher, Dougal Allan and Steve Gurney,’’ he said.
‘‘There are guys I looked up to when I was starting out in multisport and it’s awesome to have my name alongside theirs.’’
Fleming downplayed his threein-a-row success, the first by any athlete in the 24 year history of the Peak to Peak event.
‘‘It just sort of happened I guess, because I’ve have been in Queenstown three years when the race has been held.’’
The 44 kilometre challenge from the top of the Remarkables skifield to Coronet Peak skifield involved five disciplines - skiing, mountain biking, running, kayaking, and road biking.
‘‘It’s a fun event with five disciplines packed into two hours but you don’t want to leave anything out there on the course,’’ he said.
Fleming said he paced himself on the 2km downhill skiing and 17km mountain bike sections but cranked up the effort with the 7km kayak across Lake Wakatipu, from Frankton to Queenstown, and the 9km run leg.
There was no sitting back for the final 9km bike leg to Coronet Peak skifield, he said.
‘‘I tried to pace myself early on, and my crew were telling me I had a good margin but you can never believe what they are saying,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s always a honest effort on the last bike leg, there’s nowhere to hide at that stage and I was suffering a bit.
‘‘The key is to give it heaps and don’t leave anything out there.’’
Weather conditions were mixed, going from light snow and high winds at the start to mild temperatures and more snow after the finish.
‘‘We got a window in the weather and the conditions stayed good long enough to get through most of the race before it closed in.’’
Fleming’s next assignments are two events in China starting on August 28.
The first is an ‘‘extended Ironman’’ race involving a 2km swim, 120km mountain bike, 58km kayak and 42km full marathon.
A week later Fleming will join team mates Sam Manson, Marcel Hagener, and Simone Maier in a two day adventure racing team event competing up to 4-6 hours a day.
The course is unknown until the teams assembled the night before the start, he said. ‘‘All we distance know is that it will be over a hilly course.’’
Fleming, who is sponsored by outdoors clothing retailers Torpedo 7, and his employer, Around the Basin Bike Tours, said the events in China were wellorganised. ‘‘Each region uses the events to promote themselves, the prize money is good and it is a fun place to compete.’’