He shot off into an early lead and was already well clear of the huge field of more than 350 competitors at Bride.

His advantage over Parish Walk winner Jock Waddington was around three minutes at Kirk Michael and similar at Peel, but he edged it out over the Dalby climb and finished strongly to secure his first major long-distance success.

George's winning time was 6hr 51min 54sec, giving him a closing margin of 6m 07s over Waddington at the Sound.

Vinny Lynch walked a very good race to finish third in 7:03.22, while Janice Quirk of Peel was on superb form again finishing fourth overall in a women's record of 7:06.45.

She overtook Maurice Bellando in the second half of the race, with Mike Readshaw edging clear of Andy Green to grab sixth.

The top-20 was completed by David Walker, Richard Spenceley, Chris Cale, James O'Toole, Dave Taylor and second woman Shirley Gage, Helen Taylor, Tony Okell, Michael Crook, Marie Gilbertson, Mark Harvey, Maureen Moffatt and Stephen Corkill.

No fewer than 317 walkers completed the full 39.5-mile course from tip-to-tip, while a further 14 stopped at 20km.

Daniel Kinley won the under-21 race to Peel in a time of 4:42.19, with Charlotte Bell second in 5:15.54.

Full report and results in Friday's Manx Independent.