Orange runner Rod Draper picked up his fourth Bathurst Half Marathon crown and in doing so posted back-to-back wins over the longer distance for the first time. The annual event also features a 10km section which he has taken out twice.

Draper may not have posted his quickest time for the Bathurst Half Marathon, that being a 73 minutes, 21 seconds effort when he placed second in 2006, but his winning time of 74.28 was almost spot on what he had predicted in the build up.

“With times I have been running in training I should be able to run about 74 to 7.30 minutes,” Draper had said in the build up.

While Draper wore number one on his chest when setting out from Ashwood Park yesterday morning, and was rated as the favourite, the Bathurst event can attract strong runners from outside the Central West who are capable of very quick times.

This year the half marathon did attract runners from metropolitan centres, in total 116 competitors tested themselves over the distance, but none were faster than Draper.

The only man in front of him at the 10km mark was fellow Orange product Mitch Williamson, but he was contesting the shorter event and acted as a pacer.

“If you are going to have a good time you need to get out and do that first 10 kilometres reasonably quick. I knew Mitch [Williamson, 10 kilometre winner] was going to be in front of me, so I was just keeping up with him as well as possible and tried to stay strong in the next 10,” Draper said.

“My legs were feeling a bit heavy which is a bit unusual for 10 kilometres, they are usually still pretty springy then, but it mustn’t have bothered me too much because the time was reasonable quick, well quick for me anyway.

“It was good conditions to run in, it started off overcast but I knew that the sun was going to come out.”

At the 10km mark Draper was some 100 metres ahead of Brendan Davies, a man who had placed second to him in the recent Orange 10km.