BLUE Mountains runner Brendan Davies will be gunning for a fourth straight Bathurst Half Marathon win on Sunday and he will start as a red hot favourite to achieve it.
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Davies has taken over from Rod Draper as the standard-bearer for the event given his dominance since taking his first title in 2013, having previously won the 10 kilometre class.
Despite focusing more and more on ultra-marathons, the 21.1km race has suited him down to a tee, and to date only one runner – Dani Andres in 2013 – has been able to get to within three minutes of him.
His time of one hour, 12:53 minutes last year has been his best performance yet, suggesting he is only getting stronger.
Wes Gibson, a training partner of Davies and a logical pick to be the first Bathurst runner home, says he will be doing his best to try and knock the champion off his perch, but he isn’t counting on it.
“To be honest, I don’t think I’ll get him this year. He’s coming off a personal best marathon time so he’s in fantastic form, and I’m coming off a broken toe so I haven’t been able to do a lot,” Gibson said.
“I know that Brendan is bringing a lot of his runners from Up Coaching so the quality of the field should be pretty high if that’s any indicator.
“I’ll certainly be having a crack at beating him, don’t worry about that, but it will be incredibly hard.
“It is supposed to be a bit windy and possibly raining on Sunday so that will have an impact when it comes to times. It would be hard for Brendan to run a new PB here if that’s the case.
“As far as the other guys go, maybe Brandon [Martin] from Bathurst would be a bit of a threat if he has decided to take the step up into the half, but I’m not sure if he’s ready for that jump yet and he might just be running the 10km.”
Dubbo runner Jane Fardell has dominated the women’s event in recent times to claim four wins in the last six years, but it is unknown whether she will be competing tomorrow.
In the 10km event, Orange’s Mitch Williamson has been unstoppable when he has contested it, winning four titles in as many attempts, though he missed one race with injury and wasn’t able to compete last year due to other commitments.
He has been in solid form in various events this year, though, and is coming off a massive 2015.
A former employee at the Bathurst Golf Club, the Wentworth matchplay champion broke into rare territory last August when he broke the speed golf world record.
He is a scratch golfer and managed to navigate Melbourne’s Yarra Bend Golf Club in just 31 minutes – and shot 77 off the stick doing so – to take the Australian title and qualify for the World Championships.
Tomorrow’s race gets underway from 9am with a barbecue to follow at the Bathurst Bulldogs Rugby Club at Ashwood Park on Hereford Street.