The latest edition of this historic Peel to Douglas race took place on Sunday morning, resulting in victories for Commonwealth Games athletes Ollie Lockley and Sarah Webster.
Previously a road race dating back to 1909, the Manx Harriers event was moved onto the much safer Heritage Trail in 2011, a distance of approximately 10.3 miles.
Lockley took his sixth victory in the event with a brilliant display. Leading right from the start at the Peel fish yards, the Manx Harriers man was already more than three minutes clear of the 75-strong field (the highest since 2018) by the time he arrived at the crossing of Curragh Road near St John’s.
Five weeks out from contesting the Valencia Half Marathon, the recently-married Isle of Man Athletics development officer looks to be in great shape, and he stopped the watch at the finish line near Quarter Bridge in a time of 52 minutes 8 seconds. This beat his own course record, set in 2020, by 32 seconds.
There was quite a gap behind Lockley, but for the first time in the history of the trail race five competitors beat the hour mark, including three triathletes.
Will Draper pulled clear of his pursuers in the second half of the race to come home second in 57:31, with Western AC’s Paul Atherton third in 58:50.
Andy Isaac looked in fine form, coming home fourth in 59:06, and Andy Nash got the message that he needed a sprint finish to beat the hour which he achieved with three seconds to spare.
There was a fine run by Under-20 athlete Ryan Corrin to place sixth after a summer focussing on much shorter road and track races. Chris Killey ran a good solid race to finish in seventh and David Williams continues to impress with an excellent performance to place eighth. Ninth and 10th men were Kevin Shimell and Jack Freeman.
Placing ninth overall was the women’s winner, Sarah Webster of Northern AC, setting her fastest time on the course of 1:03.03.
The ultra-distance specialist is building towards December’s 100-kilometres World Championship road race in India, and she had already run the full route in the reverse direction from Douglas to Peel before the race started.
Kirsty Barber of Western AC is improving all the time and produced another fine display of controlled distance running to place second in a time of 1:10:00. Third was Emily Mylchreest, recently returned to the island and already very much a part of the local running scene.
She clocked a time of 1:13:33, particularly impressive after winning a 44-kilometre trail race in the Lake District the previous weekend.
In fourth place in the women’s race was Erika Lockley (formerly Kelly), competing under her married name for the first time.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games racewalker is doing more running presently and will certainly improve further with more races under her belt.
Another husband and wife combination to complete the race very well were the Isaacs, with Clara finishing fifth in the women’s race to add to husband Andy’s fourth place in the men’s race.
One of the most remarkable athletes on the local running scene is Mike Loundes, who is now in the 75 age category. His time of 1:20:18 was truly amazing, and placed him 47th out of the 75 competitors - of whom he was the oldest.
It was great also to welcome some visiting athletes, among them Joe Rees-Long from Southampton who was in the island to attend a wedding and had heard about the race via social media. He thoroughly enjoyed it.
The presentations of awards took place in Manx Harriers clubhouse, with the historic Karran Cup being presented to Lockley for the sixth time.
This magnificent hallmarked silver cup is named in memory of Stanley Karran, winner of the very first race in 1909, and was presented by his family following his death in the early 1950s to be awarded to the race winner each year. The women’s shield went to Webster for the second time.
Thanks go to race organiser Andy Fox and to his team of officials and marshals. Grateful thanks also go to the Creek Inn for the use of the premises for pre-race registration.
DAVID GRIFFITHS
