GUERNSEY clinched the men’s team inter-insular cross-country title for the 15th consecutive time at the weekend. Steve Dawes dominated Saturday’s race in superb conditions and a testing course over sand dunes between Les Quennevais and Les Mielles in Jersey.
His only challenge came early in the race from Sarnian teammate Lee Garland, who caught him on the base of the descent that had to be negotiated at the start of each of the three laps.
Given that he is in the middle of a hard training period, Dawes admitted to feeling the miles in his legs but managed to ease clear on the first ascent.
Garland was rewarded with second place - his best individual position in the event.
Sarnian Francis Kehoe ran a storming race to push Dave Dyke all the way to the line in the battle for third.
Only one Jersey athlete split Guernsey’s scoring six runners.
‘I’m very happy with that and I think Steve Dawes put in a brilliant performance and won it by nearly two minutes,’ said delighted team manager Paul Ingrouille.
‘While he is slightly in the shadow of Lee Merrien, he has put in a string of excellent performances and deserves credit,’ he said.
‘We had the first five in and it was a near perfect score for us. I hope we can keep the run going and we have some newcomers coming through.’
Earlier Dawes’ partner Louise Perrio, Guernsey’s main hope in the women’s event, could not quite match the challenge of Jersey’s Jo Gorrod.
Gorrod broke clear early in the two-lap race and Perrio spent much of the middle section staving off the challenge of Catherine Hutton, who has recently moved to the sister isle.
But Perrio picked up her pace and closed on the strong-running leader and she was only 13 seconds behind at the finish.
Kerry Robin ran well in her first competitive outing in club colours to claim sixth place, with Caroline Creed running one of her best races to secure ninth.
Sarah Mercier emphasised the team spirit by taking to the start line in the senior race less than an hour after having won the U-17 event.
After a tentative start, she cut through the field on the second lap to claim a creditable seventh position.
Although Jersey claimed a comfortable team victory, Guernsey were missing trio Martine Scholes, Nikki Neal and Helen Hadjam from their Hampshire medal-winning team.
‘With their absence it was always going to be a hard bargain to win that, but Louise Perrio still had a good run and Kerry Robin and Caroline Creed deserve to be picked out and Sarah Mercier who won the U-17 event,’ said Ingrouille.
‘Sarah, Louise, Martine and Kerry are all improving runners and providing we can keep that nucleus, we can turn that around as well.’
Jersey took the major spoils in the junior races and were generally stronger.
But Guernsey’s Will Bodkin and Will Steele-Moore were unchallenged in the U-17 boys’ event.
David Campbell was unfortunate to go off course while leading the U-13 boys, almost certainly costing him victory.
The young 800m and 1,500m specialist rejoined the race to claim second and help the Guernsey team to a win.
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