Latest news with #IceBlack
Otago Daily Times
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Runner ‘chuffed' with record
Former Dunedin ultra-distance runner Damian Watson nears the finish line of the Wild Horse 200 in South Wales. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Damian Watson did not just break the previous record for the Wild Horse 200 ultra-distance race across Wales, he absolutely smashed it, then ground it up into dust. The race can take up to five days to complete, but the Dunedin-born and raised runner won it in 51 hours and 51 minutes — about five and a-half hours faster than the previous race record-holder. The 38-year-old's mother Sharon Watson, of Dunedin, said it was held on a gruelling 200-mile (322km) trail, traversing the mountains of South Wales, along Offa's Dyke, traversing the Beacons Way before catching the Heart Of Wales Line on to the Wales Coast Path and finish line at Worm's Head. "It's not like the Coast to Coast in New Zealand. It's a lot longer — 322km straight." She said about 120 competed from across Europe and Watson was the only New Zealander. "He's pretty chuffed with the win. He's really competitive. "He's always been a sports person. He played ice hockey — he was a former Ice Black — and hockey, and then he took to marathon running. "He can be very hard on himself. That's why he was so chuffed. "He recently got third in a big race in the North Island which was a lot less kilometres in it, and he wasn't happy about it. "He had the fitness, but he lost it mentally at the end." Whatever went wrong upstairs, he seems to have fixed, she said. "There was no way anyone was going to catch him. "He basically led from the start and he was about 20km ahead." She said he was "a proud Kiwi" and the family was delighted to see footage of him crossing the finish line, holding a New Zealand flag. It appears there is no rest for the wicked. She said he went back to work the next day as a Trafalgar Tours guide on a bus. He spends the northern hemisphere summers tour guiding and doing marathons where he can, and in the New Zealand summer, he returns to help run his deli at Muriwai Beach with his business partners. Mrs Watson said the former King's High School student was not the easiest child in the family to raise, because he was so "driven". "But we're very proud of him."
Otago Daily Times
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Playing in front of family special for Devlin
Dylan Devlin has spent many a day skating around the Dunedin Ice Rink. It was like a second home for the Ice Black playing the sport at school and throughout his 100 caps for the Dunedin Thunder. But there will be no games quite as special as this week, representing the Ice Blacks at the division 2, group B world championships on his home ice. It is the first chance for Devlin — who is originally from Dunedin but now lives in Queenstown — to pull on the black jersey in front of his entire family at home. "They sacrificed a lot for me to play and a lot of money put into me — getting them to see me play for the country is pretty special," Devlin said. The forward, who is playing in his second world tournament and has played in several transtasman series, has nearly seen it all when it comes to the ice hockey scene in his home town. But sitting in the stands and seeing the way the community came out to support the Ice Fernz during their tournament a fortnight ago was "electric", and only added to the buzz for the Ice Blacks. "It was very, very cool. "I've never seen Dunedin like that for the women's so I'm very excited to be on the ice on that side." The Ice Blacks made a good start to their quest for gold, beating Chinese Taipei, but were thumped 5-0 by Georgia on Monday night. Devlin acknowledged every game was tough and they needed to turn up to leave their best perfomance on the ice. "Every game's kind of like a gold-medal game, you know. "You can't slack off." After growing up playing rugby, Devlin took to ice hockey at intermediate, through a European coach who encouraged him to train every day. That passion followed through when he was at King's High School and later made his Thunder debut at 17. There was plenty of bench-warming in those early days, but had it not been for those experiences, Devlin acknowledges he might never have got to the international ice. "Just being part of the environment gets you to where you are today, you know." He spent about 12 seasons with the Thunder, and played 100 games, before deciding it was time to try something new and heading for Queenstown. After two seasons with the Stampede under his belt, Devlin relished the change, calling it a big opportunity to spend more time playing hockey in a tight community. Devlin, who has recently gone out on his own as a builder, is also giving back to the sport that has given him so much and helping foster the next generation of talent. "I help the under-12s quite a bit after work. It's kind of fun. "I mean, I got that when I was here, so giving it back is kind of what you do, I guess, when you grow up." Ice hockey was a different sport in the New Zealand sporting landscape but that, alongside its intensity, was why Devlin loved it. "You tell a lot of Kiwis around New Zealand about ice hockey and they don't even know it's a sport here. "It's quite unique as well." After having yesterday off, the Ice Blacks are back in action against Thailand tonight.
