New Zealand and International Athletes shine at 2024 Shotover Moonlight Trail Runs

Since its inception the Shotover Moonlight held on Queenstown’s Ben Lomond Station has gained a strong following in the New Zealand and Australian running as one of the most challenging trail running courses in New Zealand and 2024 was no different. A strong field of over 400 runners from more than 16 different countries participated in the weekend’s events.

On Friday the Ben Lomond Vertical Kilometre presented by La Sportiva saw Auckland based Toby Batchelor defend his New Zealand title winning in an astounding 56:00.01 ahead of Scotland’s Ross Gollan. In the ladies field Kate Morrision of Lyttelton secured her the women’s title in 1:05:11.3. The top four men’s finishers went under the hour mark. By taking the Toby and Kate secured positions to attend the World Skyrunning Championships later this year in Spain. The Vertical Kilometre is an up-hill only race starting from near the Ben Lomond Station woolshed at Moke Lake, to the summit of Ben Lomond. Climbing over 1200 vertical metres in just 3.9km.

Saturday saw the long distance events take place with the legendary course of the Shotover Moonlight Mountain Marathon again challenging a range of runners with Daniel Trevana from Bright in Australia winning in 5:10.07 ahead of John Sharrock from Queenstown in 5:22.10. In the ladies field Charmaine Salvage from Australia in 7:00.30

The Moonlight Ultra event overall was won by Jérémy Marie of New Caledonia in 7:39:51 and in the women’s Alexandra’s Hannah Presswood in 8:54:33

The 30km Adventure Run was won by French runner Theo Rousselet in 3:05:04 who led from the start finishing ahead of Tanya Copeland of Alexandra who finished 2nd overall and first female in a time of 3:41:40

Toby Batchelor of Auckland doubled-down on his Friday Vertical Kilometre victory with another title, winning the Half Marathon distance in a time of 1:29:44. Queenstown’s Hannah Wall recovered from a recent injury to claim the womens title in 1:54:46

The 10km Trail Run was won by UK runner Ru Campbell 0:44:05 and Mary Searl of Australia 0:54:48

“The response we’ve received from new and returning athletes is absolutely awesome, the weather conditions were fantastic, and the calibre of runners across all events was exceptional. As a family run event it’s pretty special for us to all work together and give runners the chance to experience running through a working merino station and enjoy the spectacular high country landscapes” said event co-director Antz Longman.

The challenge of putting on events like this is not lost on the Fosters; “It’s a big effort for us to coordinate the marshalls, course logistics and trail maintenance to deliver an event across such varied terrain. We’re fortunate to have had fantastic continued support from a range of local individuals, businesses without which the event wouldn’t be possible.” said event co-director Hamish Foster.

Next year's Shotover Moonlight events will take place on the 14th and 15th February 2025.

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