Richmond’s FRONTRUNNER – on and off the track

Oska Baynes was running his Richmond sports shoes shop the FRONTRUNNER during the week and then put on his Asics to run his rivals ragged in Sunday’s Nelson Half.

In his FRONTRUNNER t-shirt, he did just that as he led throughout to win the Shoe Clinic Nelson-sponsored event in perfect conditions.

And yes, the 34-year-old, three-time national half marathon champion did see the humour in the result.

He also won the event 10 years ago over the previous course. Oska, who’s run the FRONTRUNNER in Christchurch for 10 years, bought the Richmond store in June.

“I completely changed it from what it was. My manager there, Katherine Camp, is a star-studded distance runner, but as she was in New York this week, I worked in the store,” says Oska, who cut out the 21.1km run in 1hr 08.30 to win by six minutes from Nelson’s Barney Hoskins, with Stoke’s Aaron Mitchell in third.

“It was a tempo run. Nice and steady, my first of the new season, as I try to find some rhythm ahead of the Queenstown Marathon in a fortnight. That is more of a social and work thing. I just like getting involved in the community.”

This time last year, he was winning the Auckland Marathon for the second time.
Last week, Oska caught up with his original coach, Phil Costley, who won the Auckland event four times and still holds the course record.

Phil was a maths teacher at St Andrew’s College in Christchurch and encouraged his young student to throw his energies into running.

Now at Garin College, Phil has another emerging teenage talent – his son Oliver.
The 16-year-old ran away with the 10km race, finishing just outside the 34 minute mark he was hoping to break.

“My main goal was just to win the race, so I am pretty stoked. I have been running against adults lately, so I thought why not go out there and take it to them,” enthuses the Waimea College Year 11 student.

The plan was to cruise through the first 5kms and then try and bring it home.

“Dad has helped me with all my training, schedules and stuff, and got me in pretty good shape for this,” confirms Oliver.

“All my training up to this has been over 5kms.” So why wasn’t Phil competing as well? “He ran a 3km race on the track on Saturday and won in 9hrs 43mins. That’s pretty good for a 60-year-old,” declares Oliver.

He doesn’t look it and he’s not –Phil’s 55. Oliver’s closest challenger was a new face, 28-year-old Spanish chef Alfredo Beneyto, who’s working in Picton, with Richmond’s Tegan Goodman third.

Nelson’s Conor Tarrant took out the women’s half marathon in 1hr 26.20, while Bella Cain-Townley was first home in the 10km race, in 44.13mins, to complete a double for Waimea College.

Almost 1100 runners and walkers lined up for the annual events, just shy of the record numbers from last year.