JAYNE LE NOURY was the fastest woman in Sunday’s Church to Church Walk for the first time in more than 31 years.
Le Noury, who is 48 tomorrow, was victorious in the annual 19.4-mile race in 1976 and 1977. Her time of 4hr 0min. 45sec. claimed the open winner’s spot and the Star Perpetual Trophy for the first female Channel Islander across the finishing line.
Le Noury had been looking to win the Jenny Elliott Salver for the first woman home over 35 years old. ‘That was the one I was really aiming for,’ said the child minder.
‘To win the Star Trophy was a bonus. I was very pleased [with my time] but I would have liked to have gone under four hours. I just couldn’t do it.’
Second woman home Rose Druckes finished 19min. behind, with smiling mother and daughter Karen and Katie Robinson finishing together in third place.
The men’s race went to another former champion, Carl Thomson (pictured).
Thomson, who is also an accomplished triathlete and cyclist, previously won the event in 2000.
His winning time of 2-58-23 was only seven seconds down on his win from eight years ago. He spent most of the race out by himself.
He walked well to pass five miles in 44-27, some 5-30 clear of the chasing group that consisted of Jason Le Noury, Phil Lockwood and Ed Shillabeer.
Thomson went through the 10 miles in 88-45 before slowing down by a few minutes to reach Vale Church and the 15-mile point in 2-15-14.
The final 4.4 miles were hard going, Thomson taking 43min. for the final stretch although his victory was never in doubt.
The fight for second place turned out to be the highlight of the race, with the young Le Noury, the inexperienced Lockwood and the past winner and masters walker Shillabeer battling it out until the final miles.
Within striking distance of each other for a good deal of the way, Lockwood made a determined effort around 13 miles to open a gap. He succeeded in getting away by 100 metres but was soon looking strained with some way to go and in his first race of this distance.
Passing 15 miles in 2-24, there was no way of closing down Thomson, but he had Shillabeer and then Le Noury still in contention close behind.
Lockwood faltered as he headed to 16 miles at the Vale School and again half a mile later on the downhill section to the Bridge to allow Le Noury to regain second.
Le Noury pushed on to cross the line in a new personal best time by 11min. at 3-08-28 to get himself into the Guernsey top 20 for the course.
Shillabeer also passed the struggling figure of Lockwood as he got into third place, 3min. behind Le Noury.
Lockwood stuck to the task and despite ‘hitting the wall’ over the final three miles, he can be well satisfied with his 3-17-03, which was well inside his pre-race prediction of 3-30.
Mick Le Sauvage and Kevin Le Noury once again added to their impressive number of finishes in this event.
Le Sauvage made his 47th and Le Noury 33 to equal the number walked by Roy Le Marquand.
In Friday’s warm-up event, the 3km road race at Les Amarreurs, Stuart Le Noury took the honours in a time of 15-10 while the quickest woman was Jayne Le Noury in 21-10.
Article posted on 9th September, 2008 - 2.29pm
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