Ollie Lockley was once again the class act as 51 competitors enjoyed a brief weather window on Saturday morning for the 10th edition of the Peel to Douglas trail race.

Continuing to build his training back up after suffering illness in the latter stages of the Berlin Marathon a few weeks ago, the Maughold man gave a magnificent solo demonstration of smooth and relaxed distance running to win the event for the fourth time.

Not running quite at full throttle, Lockley’s time of 52min 49sec was nevertheless only nine seconds outside the course record he set last year, despite worse conditions underfoot. His margin of victory was nearly eight minutes.

The Manx Harriers-organised race was arranged at short notice, allowing this historic fixture - previously a high-profile road race dating back to the early part of the 20th century - to continue. It is hoped to re-establish a permanent slot in the calendar for the fixture from next year.

The ceaseless rain of the previous few days finally relented early on Saturday morning, the main problem for the runners being dazzling sunshine as they made their way east along the Heritage Trail from the fishyards in Peel towards the finish at Quarter Bridge on the outskirts of Douglas.

There was some mud to contend with on the way out of Peel as well as deep standing water under the bridge at Union Mills, otherwise conditions were good with something of a tailwind.

Joel Smith has been a consistent improver over the past couple of years and his second place was perhaps his best run to date. He ran with the chasing pack early on before pulling away strongly before St John’s, and he increased his margin on the third-placed runner to 95 seconds at the finish.

There was a fascinating battle for the other high places, with fast-starting Matt Callister being closed down over the last quarter of the race but having enough in hand to defend a fine third place.

Mark Burman held fourth spot for much of the race, but was passed in the closing stages by the wily Nhlanhla Nzama who started steadily and then wound the pace up in the second half. Mike Garrett ran his usual solid race to take sixth place and was the first over-50.

Training partners Chris Killey and Dan Pownall ran in close company for seventh and eighth, while over-55 Richard Shipway ran as well as ever to take ninth. It was good to see former Island Games steeplechase champion John Halligan back in action and enjoying a good run for 10th place as he builds towards a crack at the Syd Quirk Half-Marathon later this month.

Others to impress were former footballer Alex Delaney and 400 metres hurdles specialist Mikey Haslett.

Elissa Morris gave another very impressive performance to take the women’s title by a big margin and become the first recipient of the new trophy for the female winner.

Her time of 67m 04s was the third fastest women’s time in the 10 years of the trail race, only Rachael Franklin and Sarah Webster having run faster.

Jess Bryan took second place and is definitely an athlete with the potential to shine in the coming months. She has demonstrated her ability over a variety of disciplines in recent times.

Third place went to Dawn Atherton who has recovered well from her recent marathon exploits and is such a consistent performer.

Many athletes used the race as useful preparation for the Syd Quirk, among them Dawn Yates and Summer Dewhirst who ran together to take joint fourth place, likewise Helen Taylor who was sixth.

This historic race attracted some historic runners, and there was a good battle for the over-65 honours with local athletics historian Ian Callister just doing enough to fend off the ever-determined Les Brown.

l Grateful thanks go to Andy Fox and his team of officials and marshals for getting the race on this year.

Peel to Douglas Trail Race, Manx Harriers, Sunday (10 miles appx) - results: 1, Ollie Lockley (Manx Harriers) 52min 49sec; 2, Joel Smith (Unattached) 1hr 0m 38s; 3, Matt Callister (Manx Fell Runners) 1:02.13; 4, Nhlanhla Nzama (IoM Veteran Athletes’ Club) 1:02.32; 5, Mark Burman (MFR) 1:02.40; 6, Mike Garrett (IoMVAC) 1:04.00; 7, Chris Killey (MH) 1:04.43; 8, Dan Pownall (MH) 1:04.47; 9, Richard Shipway (Western AC) 1:04.56; 10, John Halligan (MH) 1:05.33; 11, Shaun McEntee (U/A) 1:05.49; 12, Phil Knox (U/A) 1:06.36; 13, Elissa Morris (MH) 1:07.04; 14, Alex Delaney (U/A) 1:07.12; 15, Mikey Haslett (MH) 1:08.19; 16, Lee Worsfold (IoMVAC) 1:09.27; 17, Andrew Falconer (MH) 1:09.48; 18, Geoff Rice (WAC) 1:10.12; 19, Peter Callin (WAC) 1:10.28; 20, Matt Looker (U/A) 1:10.56; 21, Richard Gerrard (MH) 1:11.07; 22, Miles Shimmin (U/A) 1:13.26; 23, Jess Bryan (MH) 1:14.05; 24, Dawn Atherton (WAC) 1:15.21; 25, Shaun Nesbitt (U/A) 1:15.21; 26, Daniel O’Connor (U/A) 1:17.06; 27, Guy Wood (U/A) 1:18.18; 28=, Summer Dewhirst (U/A) and Dawn Yates (IoMVAC) 1:19.04; 30, Steve Callaghan (MFR) 1:19.49; 31, Helen Taylor (WAC) 1:19.56; 32, Jock Waddington (MFR) 1:20.44; 33, Jamie Pope (WAC) 1:20.52; 34, Lee Cook (U/A) 1:21.04; 35, Kathy Lane (IoMVAC) 1:21.42; 36, Stephen Oates (Northern AC) 1:23.43; 37=, Andy Dawson (MH) and Samantha Bowden (U/A) 1:24.26; 39, Berti Cain (WAC) 1:24.40; 40, Helen Simpson (IoMVAC) 1:25.29; 41, Maggie Watkins (MFR) 1:28.10; 42, Michael Crook (WAC) 1:29.11; 43, Katie Lawrence (WAC) 1:29.39; 44, Andrew Lodge (IoMVAC) 1:30.35; 45, Jayne Farquhar (MH) 1:31.26; 46, Angie Robinson (MH) 1:32.31; 47, David Fisher (U/A) 1:33.00; 48=, Julie Stanfield (MH) and Monika Martin (U/A) 1:34.33; 50, Ian Callister (MH) 1:50.15; 51, Les Brown (MH) 1:50.48.