1st Rees Buck 8:08.65 Scottish
2nd Scott Winton 8:09.58 Counties
3rd Matthew Holder 8:16.29 Hastings
4th Carl Jackson 8:19.93 Valleys United
5th Leighton Tremain 8:21.72 Lynndale
6th Garit Read 8:26.37 Hamilton Harriers
7th Alastair Snowden 8:29.64 Hawera Harriers
8th Kim Hogarth 8:33.84 Central
9th James Elvery 8:35.44 Auckland City
10th Brent Pulley 8:36.08 North Canterbury
11th Angus Bell 8:38.77 Hamilton Harriers
12th Vaughan Craddock 8:39.97 Auckland City
13th Stephen Smith 8:40.84 Frankton
After finishing third and second respectively at the previous two national 3000m championships I put a bit of pressure on myself to finally win my first national title as a senior. The field was looking strong with Garit Read, the new NZ U18 3000m record holder and Scott Winton, both in great form. The race started off comfortably with me taking the first lap in 63 seconds and Stephen Smith of Frankton coming up to take the next four laps in 68, 67, 67, and 68 seconds. There was a little bit of a head wind on the back straight which kept the field bunched at this relatively slow pace. We passed the first and second kilometres in 2:45 and 2:50 (5:35=2km). At this point I decided to push the pace and ran the next two laps in 64 and 60 seconds. I was going very hard at this point and Scott Winton from Counties had managed to hang on to me. With 400m to go we were 40m clear of third place and Scott made a move past me to take the lead going into the back stretch for the last time. I was going hard to stay with him and managed to find some more energy to go back around him on the final bend. I held a small lead all the way to the finish to win by less than a second. Our last lap was run in 56 seconds with the last 200m in 27 seconds. I enjoyed this race a lot and was glad that an athlete like Scott had been there to push me all the way.
