As predicted the women's race produced some great results with a record entry followed by no less than 7 runners inside the long standing record held by Maria Skelton. Led by Bristol West's Kate Reid crossing the line a clear winner in 9.15 a further 6 women dipped below the record figure of 10.02. In 2nd place was Polish star Justyna Lesman in 9.44 with USA athlete Amanda Chase in 9.52 - Kate Goodhead of Bristol West in 9.53-Erin Drumgoole in 9.57 - Russia's Elena Zhilkina 9.58-Jill Shannon in 10.00. Almost 150 women entered the race more than double the previous record entry a tribute to the club's determination to raise the profile of the event.This was a superb race from start to finish and delighted the enormous turnout of spectators despite the cold conditions. The men's race also set entry records and produced an amazing tactical race which at first seemed to have all the ingredients of a repeat whitewash of the record. Various runners pushed a very hard pace over the first lap including England's Robert Whalley and South African Jabulani Xaba. But with over 20 athletes still in contention after 2000M it was evolving into a serious tactical battle which in the end played into the hands of speedace Vyacheslav Shabunin of Russia. Shabunin won a very tight sprint finish with Americans Hunter Spence and Thomas Morgan to record a fast 14.09 just a tenth of a second off Christian Hesch's 2005 record. First Irishman was Limerick's Tom Carey in 19th place reached in 14.43. A total of 25 runners finished inside 15 minutes while the first 50 were under 16 minutes. The top 3 clubs were Swansea 1st, Bristol West 2nd and Armagh 3rd. Armagh AC also won the individual V45 with Dermot Kerr just edging out Bristol West's Mick O'Doherty while Jimmy Gillespie won the Vet 50 title from clubmate Mario Donnelly. Armagh also won both the V40 and V50 team races. Despite the threat of bad weather over 1500 runners of all ages participated in the 11 race programme run off in just over 2 hours. Results International Men 1 14:09 Vyacheslav Shabunin Sen RUSSIA 2 14:10 Hunter Spencer Sen USA 3 14:11 Thomas Morgan Sen USA 4 14:12 Alexey Reonkov Sen RUSSIA 5 14:13 Blake Bolton Sen USA 6 14:14 Robert Whalley Sen ENGLAND, Bristol West 7 14:15 Ben Noad Sen ENGLAND 8 14:18 Donald Naylor Sen WALES, Swansea Harriers 9 14:20 Alexandr Orlov Sen RUSSIA 10 14:21 Simon Jones Sen WALES, Cardiff 11 14:28 AndreyZatonskiy Sen RUSSIA 12 14:29 Stephen Sharp Sen ENGLAND, Belgrave Harriers 13 14:33 Robbie Bugden Sen ENGLAND, Bristol West 14 14:35 Marc Hobbs Sen WALES, Swansea Harriers 15 14:36 Patrick Moulden Sen USA 16 14:36 Andrey Farnosov Sen RUSSIA 17 14:39 Nate Jenkins Sen USA 18 14:42 Jabulani Xaba Sen Mpumalanga, SOUTH AFRICA 19 14:43 Tom Carey Sen Limerick A.C. 20 14:46 Mark Jennings Sen WALES, Swansea Harriers International Women 1 09:15 Kate Reid Sen Bristol West 2 09:44 Justyna Lesman Sen POLAND 3 09:52 Amanda Chase Sen Zap USA 4 09:53 Kate Goodhead Sen Bristol West 5 09:57 Erin Drumgoole Sen USA 6 09:58 Elena Zhilkina Sen RUSSIA 7 10:00 Jill Shannon Sen Lagan Valley A.C. 8 10:04 Stephanie Dueringer Sen USA 9 10:10 Kerry Harty Sen Newcastle A.C. 10 10:30 Breige Connolly Sen N. Belfast Harriers 11 10:34 Cindy Kruger Jun B Mpumalanga SOUTH AFRICA 12 10:37 Gladys Ganiel Sen Abbey A.C. 13 10:45 Bernadette Muckian V40 North East Runners 14 10:48 Danielle Fegan Jun B St. Patrick's H.S. Keady 15 10:50 Melissa Botha Jun A Mpumalanga SOUTH AFRICA 16 10:51 Wendy Davis Sen Lagan Valley A.C. 17 10:52 Donna Evans V35 Monaghan Phoenix 18 10:54 Cara Givern Sen N. Belfast Harriers 19 11:06 Hannah Waugh Sen Abbey A.C. 20 11:20 Catherine McCloskey V35 Newcastle A.C.
