Steve Dawes approaches the finish line in first place in yesterday’s half-marathon. (Pictures by Daniel Guerin, 0593704)

STEVE DAWES was the comfortable winner in the annual Healthspan Father’s Day Half-Marathon. He saw off competition from Bristol’s Chris Ledgard, but in the end Dawes eased to his first win in the event since 2004.

The two front-runners were neck and neck for the first eight miles or so and it appeared that a thrilling finale might be on the cards. However, Ledgard’s resistance ran out near L’Ancresse and Dawes opened up an unassailable lead.

After crossing the line in a respectable time of 1hr 16min. 47sec., Dawes said it was just a case of getting the job done. ‘I’m obviously delighted to win it and I enjoyed it,’ he said.

‘Chris and I were chatting about possible times for a lot of the race until I started to pull away. It wasn’t a really fast race, but it wasn’t about the time, it was about taking first place.’