All left to run for ahead of Marsascala race

The curtain falls on local road running tomorrow morning with the 11th Malta Masters 10K which also doubles up as the final race in Malta Athletics' 2007/08 Road Running League.

Of course, the athletes will keep on training and they will still have plenty of local races to keep them happy, yet the road running calendar significantly slows down after tomorrow.

At least, this year it will do so with a bang for there remains a fair degree of uncertainty as to who will win this year's title.

The men's list of favourites has to include Jonathan Balzan who is coming off a period of excellent results. Yet, he will have to watch out for Charles Cilia, taking into consideration that so far the Mellieha AC man has only taken part in two races. Looking at those two, and comparing them with Balzan's best finishes then Cilia is slightly ahead.

To succeed, tomorrow Balzan must finish at least five seconds ahead of Cilia which will not be an easy task seeing how close they tend to finish.

Carmen Hili, of St Patrick's AC, currently leads the way among women and she has been in fine form of late. Running in the London Marathon last Sunday will have affected her preparations and it would be surprising to see her at the starting line.

Much less unexpected would be the presence of Carol Walsh who recently added another title to her name by winning the Pembroke 10k.

So far, she has taken part in two of the legs of the league and needs to run at Marsascala in order to be considered for the title. If she does, it is hard not to see her winning.

Joelle Cortis's presence will make it more difficult to determine the destiny of the second overall time. Her top two times are only marginally slower than those of Hili so she is very much in the reckoning.

It is all much clearer in the teams category where St Patrick's AC should wrap up both titles. This is particularly the case for the women who have an insurmountable lead of almost 40 minutes on Zurrieq Wolves, currently second.

The gap is significantly smaller for the men but, even so, the Saints should be able to defend the four-minute lead they have on last year's dominant team, Mellieha AC.