Harrier's: Teen's final dash seals shield win | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

Napier Harrier Club members got a history lesson when their Sweeney Shield Road Relay event was staged on Saturday.

The shield has been up for grabs since the club started in 1934 with an event that involves teams of five runners and legs between 2.7km and 5.5km.

The course started from the clubrooms at Taradale Park, continued through Puketapu and returned via Puketitiri Rd into Park Island, Greenmeadows and returned to the clubrooms.

On the first lap new provincial road race champ William Kelsey established a big lead to record 17min 56sec before handing over to Toby Hall with a 1min 40sec lead.

Hall then pulled away another two minutes to hand over to Phillipa Lintott on lap three. Lintott was gradually gathered in by the chasing teams with the three leading teams all handing over to their respective team members 8sec apart.

Unfortunately one of the team members went AWOL for a minute or so and missed the start to disadvantage their team.

On the fourth lap the lead changed yet again with Mark Lane bringing his team into first place to change over at the Napier City Rovers soccer clubrooms.

He was chased hard by rival teams and handed over 30sec ahead of the second team, who were only 10sec ahead of the third placed team.

On the last leg of the relay 14-year-old Kelly Sunnex took her team from third to first and crossed the line a minute ahead of the second team.

The seven teams competing were only 4min apart.

The winning team comprised Niall McCormack, Kingston Webb, Gina Finlayson, Karl Iaveta and Sunnex who completed the journey in 1hr 27min 39sec.

Second placegetters William Kelsey, Toby Hall, Phillipa Lintott, Sam Hall and Glen Bullock recorded 1hr 28min 35sec.

Eric Phimister's team which also included Fraser Pearson, Cheryl Simpson, Mark Lane and Jason Pearson were third in 1hr 28min 48sec.