Simon Gawne won the MFX Ltd End to End Walk for the third time in four years on Sunday.

His margin of victory was an emphatic 45min 44sec over Chris Addy, with Sophie Watterson-Jones third overall, winning the women’s race for a second time.

Gawne stormed into the lead shortly after Bride and was approximately 15 minutes clear by Kirk Michael, with Sam Fletcher and Chris Addy next.

Leading female Lorna Gleave looked good in fifth spot, but Lucy Langford, visiting from the Lake District, was not too far behind in seventh.

At Peel, Gawne was more than 20 minutes ahead of Addy, with Fletcher and Gleave joint third. The latter stopped at Glen Maye as she is training for the Backyard Ultra at Archallagan plantation in early October.

Langford moved up to sixth, but not far behind was Watterson-Jones who then showed her strength on the southern hills to grab the lead, striding past the Cumbrian on the steep climb up from Dalby towards Eary Cushlin.

Gawne’s lead had stretched to 25 minutes at Round Table and he continued to pile on the coals on the long descent to Rushen. He powered up the tough climb at the Howe and reached the finish outside the Sound Cafe in a winning time of 6:34.54.

Watterson-Jones reeled Addy in substantially to cross the finish line 1m 14s behind in third place overall, slashing almost 12 minutes off her previous best from 2022.

Full report in Thursday’s Manx Independent.