TODAY Guernsey has yet another sporting hero to celebrate.

At yesterday’s Virgin London Marathon, island athlete Lee Merrien made his debut by  finishing an incredible 12th overall and fourth Briton: a huge achievement in both local and international terms.

His time of 2hr 16min. 48sec. saw him smash the 25-year-old Guernsey record, shaving around seven minutes off the time of previous holder Peter Bourgaize.

Back in July 1985 that Guernseyman re-wrote the local record books by recording a time of 2hr 23min. 54 sec. in the Gold Coast run in Australia.

Merrien’s marathon result also saw him achieve the qualifying time for the European Championships: now it is up to the Great Britain selectors.

In simple terms, Merrien’s feat at yesterday’s 30th London Marathon – accomplished in far from perfect conditions with temperatures reaching 21C and steady drizzle falling on the streets of the capital – will arguably rate as one of the best one-off individual sporting performances by a Guernsey sportsman or woman.

It certainly is an accolade that is well-deserved.

Anyone who has followed Merrien’s progress since he was a promising junior with the Guernsey Island Amateur Athletic Club, will know him to be a likeable but fiercely determined sportsman with a total focus on his sporting ambitions.

More recently, as followers of his Twitter training updates will know, this has been a project he has literally thrown his heart – and soles – into.

Merrien, believed to now be taking a well-earned break with his young family, must today be delighted with his success on where better a stage than the world’s premier big city marathon.

Lee, your island is proud of you.

Finally, while always a spectacle attracting the world’s elite, congratulations also go to everyone from the Bailiwick who took part in the London run: a truly gruelling test of both stamina and mental strength.

Whether for their personal triumph or their efforts in raising much-needed cash for worthy causes, all who ran deserve praise.

While race honours may not have awaited everyone at the finishing line, for many of them this, too, was a performance of a lifetime.