Andrew Grech and Roberta Schembri (picture, right) are the overall winners of the Nestle Fitness Malta International Challenge Marathon after bagging their third successive stage victory in this year’s race.

Yesterday’s third stage consisted of a 25km run from St Paul’s Bay to Parliament Square in Valletta and Grech strolled home first in a time of one hour 27 minutes and 18 seconds to finish ahead of Charlton Debono (1:34.41) and Keith Galea (1:34.46).

In the overall standings Grech topped the leaderboard of the three-day event with a combined time of two hours 24 minutes and 12 seconds, over eight minutes clear of Debono who placed second on 2:32.31. Galea was third with an aggregate time of 2:34.45.

In the women’s category, Schembri was equally dominant when topping yesterday’s stage in 1:48.55, finishing ahead of France’s Marina Peron (1:56.21) and Caroline Ciappara (1:58.30).

Schembri, of St Patrick’s AC, took the women’s title when finishing with an overall time of two hours 58 minutes and 13 seconds.

Peron was a distant second with a time of three hours nine minutes and 34 seconds while Ciappara was third on 3:12.17.