This year’s Ladies Running Club (LRC) 10K race was held early on Sunday morning in balmy conditions.

Over 120 runners gathered behind the start line outside the Mdina Glass Factories at Ta’ Qali, including three wheelchair athletes.

A minute’s silence was held in respect of Anna Walsh, a former club member who succumbed to a prolonged illness a few days before.

The top athletes pulled away in a start more reminiscent of a middle-distance track race.

Andrew Grech, a police officer in his last year in the Open category, was the only runner to maintain the strong pace and had already built a healthy lead turning into Rabat Road, barely 600 metres into the race.

Grech never relinquished his position, running with a strong, measured pace to extend his lead throughout, finishing in just over 33 minutes – an excellent time given the humid conditions and the fact that he was totally unchallenged throughout the race.

Grech’s improvement has been nothing short of astonishing over the past year and it would not be a surprise if he were to keep getting better through his early veteran years.

The second-placed runner was the up-and-coming Simon Spiteri, still only 21, who ran most of the race with Stephen Borg, twice his age, from whom he only managed to break away in the last kilometre, soon after re-entering Ta’ Qali.

Borg, a 2:40 marathon runner, demonstrated the strength of veteran running in Malta, taking up the mantle in the absence of established veterans such as Jonathan Balzan and Charlie Cilia.

Veterans on top

The veterans are supreme in women’s running.

It was interesting to see whether Angela Sammut would be able to seriously challenge Carmen Hili, given the former’s fine series of runs over shorter distances.

In the end, Sammut had to settle for second place as Hili’s strength in the second half of the race, mostly uphill, paid its dividends. Hili won in 39:18, almost a minute ahead of Sammut.

This was Hili’s third consecutive win in this annual race.

Sammut had a minute to spare over the third-placed woman, the fast-improving Mona Lisa Camilleri – still only 22.

Unfortunately, since the LRC Mdina Glass 10K, Sammut has been hit by a car while training, suffering injuries to her face and back that will sideline her for a few weeks.

Among the multitude of athletes of all ages, there were some other notable performances such as Martin Agius’s 40:46 at 56 years and Cecilia DeGaetano, the oldest runner in the field at 74 years, clocking 63 minutes.

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