King continues to dominate event

King of the Mountain winner Neil Labinsky coming down the mountain.

Alexia Purcell

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King of the Mountain race 2010

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Nambour’s Neil Labinsky secured his fifth straight Pomona King of the Mountain title with a convincing display on Sunday.

The 31-year-old, whose name has become synonymous with the race in recent times, dominated the event from start to finish to win in a time of 23 minutes 38 seconds.

While happy with the victory, he said his only disappointment was not breaking his race record of 22:43 set during last year’s race.

“I’ve done a lot of training for it. It was one of the first fun runs I ever did so I’ve focused on it a fair bit,” he said.

“I still had the record time in mind that I did last year. But last year I really started concentrating on it, doing the course four or five times a week. This year I was doing a bit of training on it, still training heaps, but I was just happy to win.”

Labinsky said he now had his sights set on the Queensland 5km title at next year’s state championships.

Meanwhile, Maree Stephenson notched up her second straight win in the women’s race, beating Kim Beckinsale home.

Beckinsale was lucky to finish the race after popping her shoulder out of place.