Three years ago, Jonathan Balzan made it into the record books by becoming the first Maltese athlete to win the Malta Challenge Marathon. Yesterday, Balzan achieved another milestone by becoming the first Maltese to triumph in this three-stage marathon.

Indeed, it was the third time in four years that a Maltese man had won this annual event and the second year running that there was Maltese dominance with local winners in both categories after the indomitable Carol Walsh retained the women's title. Balzan's overall time for the 42.195km distance was 2:26:29, Walsh clocked 2:50:39.

Given that for years this was the domain of foreign athletes, victories for Balzan and Walsh are a good reason to celebrate. Yet, there remains the gnawing feeling that such success was registered by default, that it was the absence of anyone good enough to challenge rather than the progress of local runners that led to this situation.

"It isn't our policy to pay for foreign athletes, which is what you have to do to attract quality participants from overseas," race director Barry Whitmore explained. "This is a family event where the finishing time isn't that important. Indeed our aim is to ensure that people have fun."

"That said, I enjoy seeing Maltese winners," he continued. "We want Maltese running to progress and believe that the more Maltese winners that there are the more encouraging it becomes."

To be fair to Balzan, you can only beat those who come to race and he did that in style. Even before last year's winner Brian Magri withdrew on the first day, he looked set on winning with the injury that had been worrying him for the previous two days showing no signs of flaring up.

In reality, only that injury could have beaten him here as he entered the final leg of the Challenge, from St Paul's Bay to Valletta, almost three minutes to the good.

"I knew that I had a good lead and the advice was to try to control the race as much as possible. However, my instinct is to try and do as well as I can, which is what I ended up doing. In fact this year's time is better than the one that I did when I won the event three years ago and that's something I'm very proud of.

"This has been a fantastic year as I've won everything there was to win, from the Road Running League to the Żurrieq Half Marathon. Now, we start to look forward to next year and try to set our targets."

An athlete who, like Balzan, should aim high is Johann Galea who was second throughout the three days. Going into the final day, he admitted that he knew that it was going to be difficult.

"Jonathan is a very good runner so I was more concerned with keeping my position. I kept up with him for the first six kilometres but from then on he simply took off," Galea said.

If Whitmore's stated ambition is that of seeing progress among the local athletes, then he will find comfort in Simon Lia. Last year, the Żurrieq Wolves man did the final leg in 1:48, this year he ran it in 1:37:50. A considerable improvement which, coupled with his earlier results, guaranteed third place for him.

"This is incredible," he said. "It is the first time that I've finished so high up the rankings. I am indebted to my coach Ivan Rozhnov who has helped me make such progress. My thanks also go to my club and my former coach Pawlu Camilleri who guided me in my first years."

In the women's category, Walsh went into the final day with a massive seven-minute advantage that made her a shoe-in for victory for the third year running.

"It went very well," she said of her run. "I could afford to take it easy because I had a healthy advantage. That said, I have to admit that I was better prepared this year than I was last year."

A beaming smile on the face of Carmen Hili at the end of the race told all about her feelings.

"I'm overjoyed," she admitted before adding: "I've managed to run the challenge marathon in under three hours which has long been an ambition of mine. It is the result of a lot of hard work for which I have to thank my coach Rozhnov."

Third on the day was Pauline Vella in 2:00:19 but this was not enough to deprive Rachel Galea (Żurrieq Wolves) of third place in the final women's standings. Galea's accumulated time was 3:19:24.

Results - Day 3

Men

1. J. Balzan (St Patrick's) 1:27:32 (overall 2:26:29).

2. J. Galea (Mellieħa) 1:31:04 (2:32:50).

3. S. Lia (Żurrieq Wolves) 1:37:50 (2:41:18).

Women

1. C. Walsh (Pembroke Athleta) 1:43:16 (overall 2:50:39).

2. C. Hili (St Patrick's) 1:47:42 (2:58:16).

3. P. Vella (St Patrick's) 2:00:19 (3:21:39) .