Paul Curphey’s London Marathon aspirations were boosted with a hard earned victory in the final event of the afternoon, the 10K run around 12 ½ laps of the NSC perimeter roadway, writes Paul Jackson.

A fast early pace was set by Northern AC’s Bernie Cannan with the chasing pack of Murray Lambden, Paul Curphey, Dave Newton and Alan Postlethwaite working together to close him down by the end of lap 4.

From then on it was left to training partners Lambden and Curphey of Manx Harriers to take the initiative and dictate the pace as they stretched out a lead ahead of Bernie Cannan and the indomitable Dave Newton and Alan Postlethwaite who endured a race long war of attrition and providing plenty of entertainment for the watching spectators.

In the closing stages the leading pair were still together before Curphey upped the pace punishing Lambden with a blistering finish to pull out 17 seconds over the final 1Km to record a winning time of 35.26s.

Cannan hung on to 3rd place as Dave Newton on his 51st birthday showed he has lost non of his characteristic determined style to out sprint fellow Vet 50 Alan Postlethwaite to the finish line finishing in 37m 09s just 6 seconds ahead of his close race rival.

An impressive finish by Richard Radcliffe secured a 6th place finish in 38m 26s with Kevin Vondy and Paul Cubbon just seconds behind. Andy Page and Mike Gellion completed the top 10 with another exciting finish just 2 seconds apart as they crossed the finish line.

The women’s race witnessed one of the race performances of the day as relative newcomer to road running Gill Churcher ran a well judged race to defeat pre race favourite Julie Harrison. Harrison ran cautiously early on, picking up the pace as the race progressed to close the gap to 32 seconds at the finish. Sally Anne Salt should be pleased with her 3rd place finish and a performance which should boost her confidence ahead of her London Marathon attempt next month.