The Altenar Isle of Man Marathon Championship, along with the supporting Half-Marathon, took place on a fine if blustery morning in the north of the island on Sunday.

Both marathon races were won by visiting athletes, Phil Hardman of Bolton United Harriers and Evelyn Twomey from Ireland. A total of 76 runners completed the race.

The traditional course takes the competitors north from Ramsey Promenade to Bride, with a significant and challenging hill on the approach to the island’s most northerly village.

The route then turns left onto the Burma Road to Andreas and onto St Jude’s and on this section the runners were buffeted by a significant headwind. The return to Ramsey is completed by way of Jurby Road and Richmond Road.

The marathon runners completed two laps of this testing course, finishing in front of the stand at Ballacloan Stadium.

Right from the off at 8.30am the race was led by experienced local marathon campaigner Shaun McEntee and as early as Dog Mills on the opening lap he had established a lead of close to one minute.

Fellow Manx Fell Runner Harry Weatherill was in second place, followed by eventual winner Hardman and locals Lou Morris and James Read. Twomey was clear in the women’s race, with the leading local Jayne Farquhar a little way behind.

As the race progressed, McEntee continued to extend his lead and looked like the certain winner, but nothing can be taken for granted in a marathon.

At around the 20-mile point he began to suffer with cramp in his calves, which continued on and off for the rest of the race. As a result, he slowed dramatically and the chasers began to reel him in.

With about three miles to go he was caught and passed by Hardman who was looking strong. The Bolton man is a very consistent distance runner who has competed in Barcelona and Lisbon in recent years, and he was to consolidate his lead to the finish to deservedly take the honours in a time of two hours 49 minutes 54 seconds.

Finishing second a little under four minutes in arrears was local man Morris who kept up a family running tradition. His siblings Elissa, Jak and Will have all enjoyed success in running over the years, either as youngsters or seniors, and this was a very impressive run.

In third place a further 39 seconds down was Irishman John Scott of Longford AC, with McEntee having to settle for fourth spot after a very tough last few miles. But his consolation was winning the Isle of Man Marathon Championship with Morris not entered for that contest.

Other fine local performances were recorded by Paul Jennings, John Quaye, Harry Weatherill, Tim Quayle and Jonathan Pugh.

Twomey, who contested the Cork Marathon in June, should be pleased with her winning time of 3hr 15m 26s on this challenging course - she won by a big margin of 35 minutes. In second place was Annmarie Riley of Penny Lane Striders and she was followed by local resident Caitlin Du Toit in a time of 4:02.39.

The women’s winner of the Isle of Man championship, in fourth place in the race, was Farquhar in a time of 4:04.20 and she will be contesting all six races in the No Rest for the Wicked series.

A huge entry of 341 runners completed the supporting Half-Marathon race over one lap of the course, and the race winners were Island Games half-marathon champion Corrin Leeming and Gemma Astin.

Leeming’s time of exactly 70 minutes was excellent, but the standout performance was that of Astin. Her time of 1:16.38 beat the previous women’s course record held by Sarah Webster by two minutes 43 seconds, finishing in fifth place overall.

l Full coverage of the half-marathon in Thursday’s Manx Independent.