Mountain king’s ready to race

SEVEN-TIMES title holder Neil Labinsky will be back this year to take on the King of the Mountain race at Pomona this weekend.
Labinsky, who has won the challenging event seven times in a row from 2006 to 2012 and holds the outright record at 22.43 minutes, will be back to challenge a top field.
The King of the Mountain is a race up a mountain in Pomona which attracts people from all over the country and New Zealand who run up a ridiculously steep mountain with the aim of beating the one-hour point.
This Sunday’s race marks the 30-year Trans Tasman Rivalry in this event with the Pomona race forming one part of the the Kawerau and Pomona Trans Tasman International Mountain Race Challenge.
This twin sister tussle started back in 1985 when a Kawerau runner holidaying on the Sunshine Coast discovered the unique mountain race. Rosalie (Rose) Hyland with husband Howard (both from Kawerau) went on to become the first New Zealand female to win the Pomona Queen of the Mountain, this on the back of a 1984 Kawerau Queen title.
It was Howard who had revived the then Tasman Mountain Race (now Kawerau King of the Mountain) in the late 70s and had gradually lifted the profile of the Kawerau race; which was establishing itself as one of the must-do mountain races in Australasia.
The race organisers on both sides of the Tasman then decided to grant the top place getters (King, Queen, Vet and Junior) a chance to annually travel across the ditch and compete in the other’s race.
Pomona organisers expect the largest contingency of Kiwi runners ever, to take part in the 30-year challenge.