In the end it was the student who bested the teacher. Zak Brown finished just ahead of Wes Gibson, the Bathurst duo running sixth and seventh respectively.

Brown ran a 27 minute and 25 second race to finish clear of Gibson (28:03) and Dean Windsor (28:18).

Brown put his strong finish down to the coaching he’d received from Gibson in the lead up to the annual event.

“I’ve been doing a fair bit of training with Wes recently at UP Coaching. That helped me get some consistency going and it’s obviously paying off,” he said.

“Looking up Esrom was uncomfortable, but knowing I had that push left in me helped me get up. I made it count. I felt strong coming off the hills and I was able to make the most of that.

“I had a big run yesterday, which wasn’t ideal, and I kind of went into today with heavy legs, but the last few months of coaching has helped me out a lot.”