Timaru's Ashbury Park never seems to get any easier with large long chutes and a dreaded section of up and down gradients each time like conquering small mountains no matter how prepared you are. 

This year, nine Kingsmen sacrificed their Sunday sleep-in for a crack at a South Island Secondary Schools Title, but we came away with much more than that. 

Our U16 Boys were the first to toe the line, in the chill of the early morning sun, it was a true test and a great development in their endurance and stamina over two laps of the infamous course. Thomas Weatherall came home in sixth place over the 3km in a time of 11:44min. 

Following Thomas, we had Gregor Watts, Leo Young and Rory Harrold who pushed themselves to a sense of Personal Excellence. In the 3-Man Teams event, our first three finishers accumulated an excellent result to allow them to take third place overall. 

Our Senior Boys were subjected to three laps of the Ashbury Park course, and in this race, our first two Lions, Josh Scott and Dan Kelleher worked together, preying on the psychological aspects of their competitors, sticking together until Josh made a break in the last 150m, arriving in 16:49min and Dan 16:53min respectively. Also competing in this race were Josh Crowley, Max Lowrey and Max Holgate. Our first three finishers were awarded first place for their accumulated scores.

This was a great result for our runners, and a great opportunity to improve on any strategies and tactics before the National Secondary Schools event in Christchurch from the 15th to the 16th of June.