There is likely to be another three-way contest for the overall honours in the Manx Telecom Parish Walk this Saturday.

Last year’s Manx Telecom-sponsored event was won by Dean Morgan for the first time, and he will be gunning to make it a double.

But he will be up against stiff opposition from twice former champion Paul Atherton and last year’s End to End winner Simon Gawne, who has not managed to pull off the big one as of yet.

Five-time winner and former record-holder Richard Gerrard has entered and will start, but is only intending to have an easy stroll to Peel as he has had some nagging injuries over the last 12 months and says he is nowhere near fit enough for a serious attempt. Amongst those likely to be vying for a top-six place are Dave Walker, Stuart Osborne, James Quirk, former under-21 winner Connor Gilbert, Tristan Shields and Callum Gawne, who finished a strong seventh last year.

Lorna Gleave won the women’s race 12 months ago in a time of 17hr 27min 31sec, one place (but 49 minutes) ahead of Sophie Watterson-Jones.

They appear to be the likely favourites again this Saturday, along with Alex Jones who was 19th in 18:46.05.

A total of 1,154 entries were received for the main event, in addition to 78 in the under-21 race to Peel (32.5 miles), split 44/34 between male and female.

Full reports in next week’s Isle of Manx Examiner and Manx Independent.

JOHN WATTERSON