A team of Whakatāne harriers performed very well at the Tauranga Open Cross-Country Interclub Races on Saturday, May 23, coming home with four medals.

The races were held over a testing course, with one steep hill and an easier gradient long hill at Waipuna Park, Welcome Bay, in fine conditions.

The great results started with eight-year-old Iris Stansloski winning the silver medal out of 30 girls in the 1-kilometre under-10 race in 4 minutes 19 seconds.

Iris started conservatively and up the long hill she overtook several runners, reaching second place at around 200 metres from the finish, with a very fast finish.

Kirra Lambert, in her debut interclub cross-country race, also ran exceptionally well for 10th in 4.45, a very good time, as did Parker Shaw in his debut, coming 14th out of 32 boys in 4.54.

Azelle Stansloski ran a very good race for ninth in the girls’ under-16 3km in 13.46, with Lilly Anderson 12th.

Kelly Shallow came seventh in the masters' 35-49 4km race in a good time of 21.49. Chrissy Weeks won a good endurance bronze in the masters’ women’s 50-65 race.

Max Green ran a tremendous race for silver in the open men’s 8km in 29.13, and with a top run of 29.13 Oliver Ashburn finished sixth in 31.47.

Green tried hard to repeat his wins in this event of 2024 and 2025, but Conrad Visagie of Tauranga, who is trying for an overseas team, ran a blinder in 28.43.

Green’s run equated to 3 minutes 39 seconds per kilometre on the challenging terrain.

Ashburn showed more of the great form that recently carried him to the win in the Lake City 10km Bush Race.

There was a further great run by Joel Stansloski for bronze in a field of 11 in the MM35-49 8km in 31.06, a good rate of 3 minutes 53 per kilometre.

Paul Jamieson also ran well for sixth.

Oliver Christie improved one place from 2025 to win bronze in the 6km under-20 in a very good time of 21.29, improving by 25 seconds on his 2025 run.

A big welcome to all runners and walkers to our Arnold Campbell Memorial Awatapu Lagoon Race on Saturday, May 30.

The Arnold Campbell will be a handicap race over 7.4km. There will also be a new trophy race the Ron Price and Memorial and Bev for junior runners around the 1.5km western loop of the lagoon.

Please meet 1pm for a 1.30pm start at the western (Riverside Drive) end.