First time entrants in the Southern Lakes Half Marathon took the honours on Saturday (May 7) with both the men’s and women’s winners running the event for the first time.

Christchurch’s Brett Tingay (42) won the men's race in 01:10:50 and Queenstown’s Angela Waters (29) won the women's race in a time of 01:17:16.

“This is the first time I’ve run this event and yeah it’s awesome,” Brett said.

“I’m in the vet category so ‘one ten’ for me is pretty good.”

Angela said she has been competitively running for seven years and is “always chasing a personal best”.

“It [race time] was just over two minutes faster than my best,” she said.

Entries were down this year with over 100 withdrawals in the two weeks preceding the race due to Covid-19.

Around 360 athletes competed across three events; the half marathon, the 10 kilometre run and the 10 kilometre walk.

Click here for the full results.

PHOTO: Wānaka App