Athletics: Muskett takes national title
Post date: Feb 24, 2011 7:49:50 PM
By Alistair McMurran on Wed, 23 Feb 2011
Val Muskett (Hill City) was the first New Zealand woman home in the national 100km running championships around Lake Taupo at the weekend.
Muskett (56) was beaten by Australian Sharon Scholz but won the national title because she was the first New Zealand woman home.
Scholz won by six minutes in a time of 9hr 21min 57sec from Muskett on 9hr 27min 53sec and Meredith Quinlan (Australia) on 9hr 44min 04sec.
It was an exciting race with two world-class Australians in the field.
Sholz was named the International Athletics Union's Athlete of the Year after finishing sixth in the world 24 hour championships with a distance of 224km.
Quinland finished ninth in the world 24 hour race with a distance of 217km.
Muskett led for much of the first lap until an enforced toilet stop put her well behind both Australians.
The Australians battled hard, changing positions several times while Muskett got back into her running.
After 45km, Muskett began to strip a minute a kilometre off Meredith and finally passed her at the 50km mark.
She then set her sights on Scholz and closed the gap to three minutes.
But recurring cramp forced Muskett to consolidate her position rather than risk a disastrous chase.