Distance between them as twins' hopes dashed | Bay of Plenty Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Bay of Plenty

Fatigue and frustration came in equal doses for the MacDonald brothers on a busy day of running yesterday.

Tauranga twins Kyle and Iain were separated by a couple of hundred kilometres but their finishing orders were nearly identical - or at least they would have been but for a navigational disaster.

Running with Tauranga Ramblers teammate Ben Ruthe in Hamilton's 12km Round the Bridges event, Kyle was chasing early leaders Rees Buck and Stephen Lett through the Rose Gardens when Lett took a wrong turn at the 8km mark.

MacDonald and Ruthe followed in turn, before the trio hit a dead-end and had to turn back, costing them nearly a minute.

Lett eventually fought back to finish second to Buck, with Ruthe clinging on for third, but a demoralised MacDonald had to summon a sprint finish to get back up to fifth. "Overall I was pretty happy with the event but the marshaling wasn't flash and that poorly marked section really cost us," he said. "I'd just broken from Ben and was feeling good and then I had to scramble back - the foot came off the accelerator a bit and it was pretty frustrating."

Ruthe's wife Jess won the women's race, her third win in as many weekends after the Auckland Marathon and Tauranga's Bays and Bridges, holding off  Danielle Travis by 21secs.

Across the Kaimais and down the coast, meanwhile, Iain MacDonald found his first taste of trail-running tough going, despite finishing third at the 18km Toi's Challenge in Whakatane.

Iain had to bow to Galatea off-road guru Sjors Corporaal and Hamilton's Kerry Suter in the first event of the North Island Triple Crown series, although he made a gutsy debut, finishing in 1:25:23.

"That was pretty tough," MacDonald confirmed. "I saw Sjors hanging back a little bit and I thought he might come through later on but he kicked through faster than I thought. He gapped me coming into Ohope and went after Kerry and then I lost sight of them. I thought I'd have a chance of catching them on the beach but they were just too strong. Once I lost sight of them, that was it and I settled for third, trying not to overdo it on the hills."

He managed to hold off flying Rotorua 55-year-old Colin Earwaker, who shattered his own masters record by nearly 2mins to finish fourth in 1:25:58.

Another Tauranga runner, Jill Fuller, grabbed third in the women's division, following home Rotorua's Annika Smail and Whakatane local Karen Hanley. Fresh from winning the mixed team section of the Motu Challenge with husband Grier, Fuller has already committed to the rest of the Triple Crown series. "I thought it was a good idea but after today, I'm not so sure," Fuller grimaced. "People have told me that was the easiest of the three as well."