RECENTLY crowned county cross-country champion Louise Perrio (pictured) continued her rich vein of form by setting a new women’s course record in winning the GIAAC’s 10-mile road championship race held over a looped course from the Imperial Hotel.

Steve Dawes and Ronan Shally led the field up the hill towards Torteval and were to draw ever further clear.

Strung behind them, Tristan Robilliard, Hubert Nicolle and Greg James had edged clear of Perrio, who had also pulled a few metres clear of Martine Scholes in what promised to be a close women’s race.

Dawes duly extended his run of victories over the longest of the club’s major championship events to six and came home a minute and a half clear of Shally in 55min. 51sec.

Perrio’s lead over Scholes remained slender over the middle section of the race, which dropped from Les Landes to Les Adams near L’Eree, and as the race hit the coast again for the final upwind three-mile stretch from Perelle to the Imperial the odds were that the more powerful Scholes would gain into the headwind.

However, Perrio had held something in reserve and finished strongly, pulling over a minute clear and finishing in 61-27 to claim fifth overall and clip 26 seconds off Scholes’ two-year-old record.