Balzan and Galea take top honours

The 13th edition of the St Patrick's AC Dingli 10, organised jointly by St Patrick's AC and the Dingli Local Council, was held yesterday under blue skies on a perfect, bright winter morning.

I have been covering this event since its inception way back in 1991 and this was the first time ever that the race was held in windless conditions much to the delight of all participants.

While in the men's division tactics and stamina were the order of the day among the leading pack, in the women's section there was absolutely no stopping Carol Galea. Once again, she pulverised all opposition.

Some 115 runners lined up for the senior 10-mile (16kms) race. It is downhill all the way for the first four miles, from the start at the centre of Dingli to the Fiddien Valley.

The early runners were the familiar faces of Drew Lang (three times winner), Jonathan Balzan, Mario Pisani and Michael Gellel while the irrepressible Galea was way ahead in the ladies' section and had already made the race her own.

The crucial deciding section of the Dingli 10 starts at the four-mile mark from where the runners start to tackle hilly terrain leading to the Cliffs. For the leaders, this is in fact the real start of the race.

The leading bunch, eyeing each other for any surprise move, kept close together with Lang heading the quartet till the seventh mile. It was here that Balzan decided to go for it.

Slowly, but surely, he drew away from Lang and when they reached Dingli Cliffs and with only one mile to go, there was no stopping Balzan as he crossed the finishing line in a time of 57.17.

For Balzan, who came in second in the Malta half-marathon last month, this was his most prestigious title so far.

The first three athletes home were all from St Patrick's AC. Lang was just under one minute slower than Balzan (58.08) while Pisani was timed at 58.29.

In the women's section, Galea (Athleta Pembroke) dominated proceedings from start to finish. She had absolutely no rivals at all to worry her. This fantastic long distance runner, having already established a monumental 11 outright wins in the Malta half marathon, continued to consolidate her monopoly also in this event, chalking up her sixth successive success in a time of 1:03.19.

Beaming with delight at the finish, never hiding the fact that she really relishes taking part in this race, Galea told me that her next objective is her participation in the Games of the Small States of Europe during the first week of June. Looking further ahead, she will be taking part in either the Dublin or the Chicago full marathon in October.

Silvana Camilleri, from the Ladies Running Club, was second (1:09.31) while Anna Bugeja (St Patrick's AC) took the third berth (1:16.35).

Keith Tabone (12.33) was the winner in the junior (U-17) 3.5km race. He was followed home by Carl Zammit (12.38) and Andre Camilleri (13.07). All three hail from St Patrick's AC.

In the women's section, Maruska Cutajar (14.05) beat all rivals to take the top prize ahead of Lorna Mifsud (15.03) and Denise Law (15.12). All three are members of Athleta Pembroke.

To complete the list, Yana Pace Cocks and Duncan Incorvaja - both nine-year-olds - placed first and second in the non-competitive 2km fun race.