51 years of fun running

In a rare result the top times went to athletes with local pedigree's with former St George runner James Nipperess (33.13) leading former Shire runner James Barker in the men's and Sutherland's Eloise Wellings (36.13) taking the women's win.

Starting in sunshine at Sutherland the winner hit the line in torrential rain, which thankfully passed for the majority of race finishes.

Nipperess, who now runs for Sydney Uni, is a former Comm Games and Australian champion runner who said he was now turning his hand to the Marathon.

"It was a tough course, but after finishing fourth last year I'm pretty happy," he said. "I'm running the City to Surf in four weeks but I am just warming up to run in the Berlin Marathon in September. This has to be the best fun run in the world."

Barker, who moved from the Shire to Canberra 20 years ago, finished just over a minute behind the 33 year old and said he led until the four km mark before Nipperess took off at seven to go.

"I actually finished second here in 1997. He's 33 I'm 46, so I always expected him to run away with it," he said.

Another Sutherland Shire runner Jesiah Low made his mark on the race, winning the u16's in a time of 35.58. He was the seventh runner home just beating Olympian Eloise Wellings and is a runner who is going places.

Wellings, who always runs this race for a cause, said she wasn't sure how her legs would feel just two weeks after a marathon, but it was easy to show up to run for her Love Mercy Foundation.

"It's the fastest time I've done, even when I was training for Worlds so I'm stoked.

"Thanks to the Hydroflux Sutherland team for partnering with Love Mercy to drill another well to give access to clean water for a community in Uganda." she said

"I'm grateful that a local Shire company can have such a global impact."

Now in its 51st year, Wanda SLSC's desire to increase fundraising gave birth to the Sutherland 2 Surf fun run on September 23, 1972. Fifty competitors took part and it was won by Keith Sadler.