It was a pleasure and an honour to watch ALL the Isle of Man competitors taking part. I was witness to an amazing performance by the Manx Team.

Sean's walk was perfect. Lapping the whole field in the first quarter of the race. It was then up to the best in the UK, Holland,Belgium,and Denmark to chase him. When Sandra Brown attempted to unlap herself. Sean allowed her to pass him, then just sat on her shoulder for some 60 miles. During the remaining 60 miles, Sean controlled the race. Numerous times Sandra made effort after effort to lose Sean and unlap herself but Sean covered every move. He remained relaxed and focused at every stage. 

Sandra's final attempt to break away from Sean came around the 94 mile mark, she put some daylight between her and Sean but it was nothing to get stressed about.

Sean coasted home and crossed the line just over the 19hr mark.

Next of the team to finish were, Roey & Eammon, walking the whole 100 miles together. Their performance was solid and calculated. There was never any doubt about their ability to finish this extremely challenging event. "Superb"

As for the 3 remaining Manx walkers still left to finish. Words such as, gutsy,awesome,inspirational and brilliant would not really give an indication of how well these guys walked. All three knew they were up against it from the start. Comparing  their completion times for The Parish. Against the extra mileage for the 100, it was always going to be a hard slog. These three Heroes were, Keith Wilkinson, Dermot O'toole and Selwyn Callister. They battled and battled their way around. They had some very low points, especially during, what was a very unpleasant cold,wet,windy night. There were times when they doubted themselves. There were times when they were extremely tired and times when the pain was almost too much. You only have to look at Selwyn's feet to have some idea of how hard they pushed themselves. And how determined they were to achieve their goal. Their performances were truly amazing.

As I said before..It was with pleasure and an honour, to have witnessed these 6 amazing athletes.

I must also mention the performance of John Stubbs and Alan Kinvig. They were an absolute credit to the Team. They struggled all through the night with very painful back and ankle problems. Finally throwing the towel in, in the early morning, when it was clear they would be timed out.

Finally, Ray Pitt's performance in the 20 mile race during the early evening was astounding. Being dropped, in what was a very fast looking race. Pulling himself back into joint lead, going neck and neck with another UK walker. On the last lap with no real daylight between Ray and the UK walker, Ray turned onto the track and unleashed a sprint finish, the likes of, I've never seen before. Tough on Simon Cox being DQ'd in the same race, he was walking really well.

Final, finally........no walker could ask for a better back up team than the one we had....like the Isle of Man Team.....they're THE BEST.....

ROBBIE CALLISTER