Iris Stansloski ran a brilliant race at the Whakatāne Harrier Clubs Fairway Race held on Anzac Day.

The race involved a choice of multiple laps of the 1.43-kilometre course, located on the reserve to the north of Appenzell Drive.

Following the recent rains, the course was very wet, necessitating one minor course adjustment.

Generally, the terrain was reasonably flat, but with one stiff hill, heading just over halfway up to Waiewe Street.

There was an exceptional turnout of just over 30 runners for the event.

Iris ran a tremendous race finishing three laps – 4.29km – in 20 minutes and 20 seconds to finish second behind the winning adult male, Mark Crouchley, who ran a good 19.56. This was a tremendous pace of 4.44 per kilometre for the eight-year-old, through the wet terrain.

Older sister Azelle Stansloski, 21.02, and Ryker Hauser, 22.57, also ran well.

The winner over five laps was Joel Stansloski in a fast 28.07 for 7.15km. This was an amazing 3:56 per km and bodes well for his Rotorua Marathon next weekend.

Also fast in second was Aidan Campbel in 29.49, Paul Jamieson, third in 31.43, and David Milne, 33.16.

There were very good long-distance runs for four laps being 5.72km by Liza Rozdestvenskaya, 30.52, and Rosie Milne, 33.16.

Lilly Anderson won the two-lap 2.86km race, with a great run by another eight-year-old, Kirra Lambert, in 16.34, a notably fast finish sprint by Liv Hockermeier in 19.11, and a good run by Parker Shaw of 21.19.

Youngster Thandi Crouchley repeated her heroic run of the previous week to win the one-lap 1.43km race in 8.46, closely followed by Ari Hauser in 9.03, Melissa Hauser, 9.33, and Bodhi Burnett, 9.50.

All are welcome to our club competition this Saturday, which is the Peter de Peter de Feijter Feijoa and Avocado harrier race.

Meet at 1pm for a 1.30pm start at corner 499C White Pine Bush Road (turn left at Station Road intersection and travel around 200m, then follow the markers to the start).

This will be an enjoyable run for all abilities and ages. Again, there will be options of multiple laps of the 1.2km course through the orchard and one hill.