Steve Partington cut short his rest period following his recent 50k effort in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games to claim the H.S.B.C Manx 10k walk championships.

Despite not being fully recovered and back up to sprinting speed, he was still a comfortable six minutes ahead of his nearest rival. The race for the remainder of the podium positions was a much closer affair, with junior man Robert Moore just edging out Sean Hands for second position, Robert reduced his lifetime best set in Slovakia a fortnight earlier by another three seconds. Sean was a little down on his best, but put up a really good fight throughout the entire race.

In the ladies event, Marie Latham successfully defended her title and like Steve was well clear of her nearest rival, despite still struggling with a niggling foot injury. It was Clague domination on the rest of the leader board with Bethany in a clear second ahead of Helen, who finished on the same time as Joanna but just got the verdict on being third past the post.

Lauren Whelan was unchallenged in the u13 girls 3k event, and walked a steady but stylish effort to take the title. In the combined under 11 boys and girls 1k event, Sinead Kaneen was the overall winner.

Terence George took the boys title but was just one second ahead of second boy Adam Cowin and the talented Katie Norris who crossed the finish line together. Alex Norris was just a further 6 seconds back for third. Jessica Isherwood was third girl ahead of newcomer Millie Rowe.


Picture: Robert Moore taken by Emma Latham, courtesy of www.manxathletics.com.