Excellent conditions and just under 50 teams entered made for some exciting racing at the 90th annual Lovelock Relays, organised by athletics club Hill City-University, at the University Oval on Saturday.

The 6x1500m senior men’s race featured a fierce competition between Hill City-University and Leith with multiple lead changes throughout.

While HCU led after the first leg, the teams remained close.

Leg three featured a powerful surge from Leith’s Simon Cromarty before Thomas White (HCU) almost closed the gap in a strong last lap.

On the last leg, HCU runner Jake Owen (coached by Mike Weddell) made a decisive break from Graham Fisher (Leith), running 4min 5sec to secure both the win and fastest time of the day.

Successfully defending the title for a third year, the team of Owen, White, Matt Bolter, Thomas Weatherall, Caleb Dobier and Oskar Ehrhardt finished in 26min 2sec, followed by Leith in 26min 27sec.

"It was a ding-dong battle," HCU president Mark Geddes said.

"The lead changed about four times…