Drew Lang

The 38th Gozo half marathon and affiliated races, held recently, again attracted a record number of participants.

In fact, over 340 runners, including some foreigners, took part in this year’s races with the half marathon alone taking athletes through six different village squares before the finish at Xagħra.

The half marathon, which offers a series of challenges mainly due to its hilly route, was won by Drew Lang in 1:18.04. He finished ahead of Matthew Cutajar (01:22.05) and Rodney Cassar (01:25.11).

The first woman home was Jacqueline Booker (1:38.56) with Lisa Delia (01:43.30) second and Angelica Portelli (01:46.48) third.

Apart from the half marathon, the series also featured an 8-mile race and runs of 4kms and 2kms. There was also a fun run for young begin-ners and for a third consecutive year, a 13.1-mile race for mountain bikers was also organised.

The eight-mile race was won by Jonathan Balzan in 44.49. He was followed by Fabio Spiteri (46.27) and Melvin Mifsud (47.31). Doreen Camilleri covered the distance in 55.08 ahead of Gianella Bugeja (58.53) and Cecilia Fenech (59.09).

Charles Cilia currently holds the record time for both the half marathon (2006, 1:11.40) and 8-mile races (2008, 43.14) in Gozo.

Gozitan runners turned up in large numbers on the day.

Jimmy Sacco (01:28:46) was the first Gozitan runner past the gantry in the half and Daniel Pace (51.09) and Felicienne Mercieca (1:01.25) beat their fellow Gozitans in the eight-mile race .

In a statement, the Gozo half marathon organising committee said they received lots of positive feedback about the event.

“It’s a killer of a route, but the rewarding feeling when crossing the finishing line was indescribable,” one participant said.

Another runner added: “This has been my fifth consecutive participation and it still creates great inner enthusiasm to run the Gozo half marathon.”