Gibson finished inside the top 10 for his age category courtesy of a two hour and 20 second run over the down-and-up course.

The Bathurst competitor didn’t quite conquer the brutal Furber Steps as quick as he would have liked but was still superb among a field of almost 2000 competitor.

“I had trouble early on the stairs when I couldn’t quite get moving but about half way up I sucked it in and pushed on, because I was trying to get under two hours,” Gibson said.

“I didn’t quite get there but I was still pretty happy. I couldn’t have done much more on the day.

“I’d done Furber Steps quite a bit in training and I’d done it three minutes quicker but that’s just how it is. It’s such a tough climb. 

“It was a quick pace from the start so right from the gun it was pretty full on.

“It was a class field. There were so many good runners around. I felt like I was on my own for the last six kilometres, which was quite interesting considering the stories I’d heard about the conga lines forming.”

The finish of the 22km event played out exactly as Gibson predicted, with Ben St Lawrence dominating the field to win in a time of 1:35:23.

St Lawrence was almost eight minutes clear of Courtney Atkinson (1:43:11) while Vlad Shatrov (1:44:13) was third.

Lyndon Orpwood was the best of the Bathurst competitors in the gruelling, blue ribband UTA 100km event.

Orpwood finished inside the top 300 against a class field, finishing the long day out in a time of 14:59:44.

Fellow Bathurst competitors James Rennie (16:30:05) and Chris Grady (17:08:34) weren’t far away. Grady’s time saw him finish fourth in the 60 years and over category.

Former Bathurst Half Marathon winner Brendan Davies returned to the top of the UTA100 podium with a 09:18:10.

Fran Grady (08:26:20) finished inside the top 30 for her category in the 50km edition while Kellie Gibson (02:43:19) was 33^rd in her division for the 22km race.