Christa Cain broke Brenda Walker’s 31-year-old Isle of Man women’s marathon record in Valencia, Spain on Sunday morning.

She ran a superbly-judged race to cross the finish line in a time of 2hr 39min 10sec, beating the time set by Walker in Rotterdam in 1993 by 26 seconds.

Caini's pace judgement was spot-on, with her 5km split times being 18m 32s, 18.53, 18.57, 18.50, 18.56, 18.49, 19.07, 19.01, and her additional time to the finish was 8.07.

Her half-marathon split was 1:19.20 as she finished in 57th place out of more than 8,000 women in the field.

This is without doubt the highlight of what has been an incredible running career since Cain took up the sport a few years ago in her early 30s, and she has well and truly written her name into the history books of Manx athletics.

Also in action with superb times were fellow locals Eamon Farrell with 2:44.25 and Lewis Crowe with 2:53.42, both new personal bests. Liverpool-based former island resident Richard Costain recorded a good time of 3:09.35.

DAVID GRIFFITHS