St Patrick's success confirmed

After a wait of almost two months - an error made while measuring the distance of the final race in Marsascala led to a delay in the publication of the results - St Patrick's AC have finally been declared winners of the 2008-09 Road Running League.

Not only that but St Patrick's managed to collect most of the top honours. It was only the women's team event that they failed to win with that particular honour going to Pembroke Athleta.

Otherwise, it was a clean sweep as far as the men were concerned as Jonathan Balzan and Haithem Kisheim finished first and second respectively in the overall standings with Brian Magri, of Pembroke Athleta, in third.

Balzan and Kisheim were then joined by Drew Lang and Patrick Saliba as they won the team event with a six-minute advantage over Mellieħa AC. Żurrieq Wolves were third.

In the women's category, the undoubted star was Giselle Camilleri. Winner of a bronze medal at the GSSE in Cyprus, Camilleri had a terrific season as she did just enough to edge out team-mate Carmen Hili who came second in the overall standings. Doreen Vella, of Żurrieq Wolves, placed third.

"It is frustrating to see such mistakes that diminish all the work that we put in," Antoine Attard, president of St Patrick's AC, said in a statement about the delay in the release of the results.

"From a club perspective this has been a fantastic season as we confirmed our position as the leading Maltese club in long-distance running. Those achieved this year are results upon which we plan to build and already we've set ourselves the target of winning the women's category."

There was further success for club athletes at the Birżebbuġa 10K where once again Balzan led the athletes home in an impressive 33:11.

Angela Sammut, also of St Patrick's, was the first woman in a time of 40:48.

In the meantime, St Patrick's are planning to celebrate these successes, as well as those of its triathletes at the recent Ironman in Austria, with an activity on August 17.