Christa Cain produced a stunning display of 10,000 metres running on Sunday evening to claim gold and smash the Island Games record for the event.

The Douglas woman was in imperious form at a sun-kissed Pickaquoy Centre leading from the off.

Indeed such was her scintillating pace, that she had lapped the rest of the field just after half-distance in the 25-lap event.

Her pace slowed a smidge in the second half of the race, but she still finished nearly a minute inside the previous Games record of 36 minutes 11.68 seconds, set by Aland’s Ann-Catrin Nordman way back in 1997.

Cain, who only took up the sport competitively three years ago, stopped the clock at 35:16.83 to finish more than two minutes ahead of runner-up Amy Kelland from the Isle of Wight. Marina Bagur Olives completed the top three, a few seconds down on Kelland after a sprint for the finish.

A delighted Cain said after the finish that she hadn’t expected to be so dominant: ‘I wasn't expecting that. I thought there's going to be a right battle, so I went out hard from the off.

‘I’d obviously checked out the other competitors in the field, and there's some really fast girls out there.

‘You just never know what anyone's gonna do on the day.

‘So I went out with my strategy to try and lead from the front.

‘I kept checking over my shoulder for the first few laps, and realised quite quickly I was a little bit ahead, so that gave me a bit of confidence and I just hoped that I could hold it throughout.’

Talking about breaking the event’s long-standing record, Cain added: ‘I’m buzzing with that.

‘Thirty five minutes was what I was aiming for, but on a day like today, you just don't know how you're gonna perform when the sun's shining on your back.’

Cain’s record has completed an impressive clean sweep for Isle of Man runners. Manx women now hold the Games record at 400 metres (Catherine Reid), 800 metres (Rachael Franklin), 5,000 metres (Rachael Franklin), 10,000 metres (Cain) and half-marathon (Brenda Walker). In the early years of the Games there was a 3,000 metres race - and Brenda Walker held the record for that as well.

Only one marathon has ever been held, in 1989, and that was won by Ann Gomer - so Manx women now hold records at every distance from 400 metres to marathon.

Cain’s hectic Island Games debut continues on Wednesday in the 5,000 metres, before she has a crack at her favoured distance of half-marathon around the streets of Kirkwall on Friday.

Georgia Price made a little bit of Manx athletics history on Sunday after when she became the first Isle of Man athlete to medal in the women’s triple jump.

The former gymnast, who is making her Island Games athletics bow this year, claimed silver with a jump of 11.53 metres, just shy of her personal best of 11.55 set in June.

Taking gold with a jump of 11.61 was Jersey’s Zara Asante who marked her Games debut in style.

Bronze went to Guernsey’s Victoria Hancock who jumped 11.47.

Price’s Isle of Man team-mate Jessica Schreuder also performed well on her Games debut to finish sixth with a jump of 10.14.