EAMON Farrell won the Gordy Brew Western 10 road race for the first time on Sunday, after a close contest with Lewis Crowe.

Kirsty Barber took the honours in the women’s race for the second year in succession, although her time was almost three minutes slower than last year, perhaps down to a headwind over the early and late sections of the course.

Only 59 runners took part this year, the Western AC event clearly hit by the unfortunate clash with the new Backyard Ultra, the rearranged Tough Mucka and a number of athletes (including last year’s Western 10 winner Corbyn Schade and three other host club members) taking part in the Manchester Half-Marathon - Corbyn producing a 68m-22s PB.

Farrell, Crowe and Mark Burman set off at a rapid pace, but the latter had been dropped by the time they’d reached Patrick.

The other two remained together for the remainder of the race, Crowe battling into a headwind in front of Farrell at the top of Ballagyr Hill with a little over one mile remaining.

Resident Irishman Farrell had the stronger finish, crossing the line outside the House of Manannan in a time of 56min 30sec, seven seconds in front of his rival.

Burman held onto third place at a further 21s, although first vet 45 Joel Smith had him in his sights for much of the way and was only half-a-minute down at the close.

In a race that had a lot of substantial time gaps, Tim Quayle was more than six minutes down on Smith in fifth, one minute clear of Kevin Harding.

Women’s race winner Barber was seventh overall in 1:08.08, followed by Emily Mylchreest (12th) and Jessica Newing (22nd and first female vet-40).

road running
Kirsty Barber on the final part of Ballagyr Hill on her way to retaining the women’s race honours (Photo: John Watterson) ( (Photo: John Watterson))

Former cyclist Nick Corlett was eighth and leading vet-50 Simon Atherton ninth. Tufty Nash and Kevin Deakes were first vet-60 and vet-65 respectively, Michael Loundes first vet-75 and Ray Shooter vet-80, three months off 85!

Women’s age-group honours went to Kirin Gilmore (v55), Sarah Corkill (v50), Steph Burton (v60) and Carol Roy (v70).

Best junior was Sean Brown in 24th spot.

Western 10
Royal Engineers veteran Mike Ryan did exceptionally well to complete the undulating 10-mile course in a tad over 3hr 20min (Western AC) (Western AC)

The most meritorious performance came from Mike Ryan of Onchan who completed what is an undulating and testing course, including the stiff climb from Ballig to the top of the Switchback, in a time of 3hr 20min in his wheelchair, accompanied by Neil Stewart.

‘That was one of the hardest things I've ever done, much harder than the London Marathon,’ he posted later. ‘It will be interesting to see if another wheelchair user attempts the race.’

Leading results (Western 10 road race): 1, Eamon Farrell 56min 30sec; 2, Lewis Crowe 56.37; 3, Mark Burman 59.58; 4, Joel Smith 1:00.28; 5, Tim Quayle 1:06.36; 6, Kevin Harding 1:07.35; 7, Kirsty Barber 1:08.08; 8, Nick Corlett 1:08.22; 9, Simon Atherton 1:08.26; 10, Richard Highfield 1:08.31; 11, Michael Faid 1:09.45; 12=, Emily Mylchreest and Jack Okell 1:12.33; 14, Mark Murphy 1:12.51; 15, Thomas Brown 1:13.33; 16, Miles Shimmin 1:14.08; 17=, Tufty Nash and Kevin Deakes 1:14.10; 19, Daniel O'Connor 1:17.11; 20, Michael Baker 1:17.25; 21, David McCallum 1:17.38; 22, Jessica Newing 1:17.59; 23, Chris Hodgson 1:18.03; 24, Sean Brown 1:18.19; 25, Harry Snape 1:18.45.