Slimline Steve is on the up

Tuesday 23rd November 2010, 2:30PM GMT.

CUTTING out sweets and chocolate is the secret behind Steve Dawes’ sudden jump into the higher reaches of the UK half-marathon rankings.

The slimmer, fitter Dawes has climbed more than 70 places in the UK lists with his breakthrough performance at Gosport on Sunday.

In clocking 67min. 49sec. Dawes finished second in a field of 1,463 finishers at the Gosport Half and in so doing leapfrogged several notable island athletes to move into second place in the all-time Guernsey rankings for the distance and into the top 60 nationally.

Dawes, 29 (pictured), ran most of the race alone having abandoned his early pursuit of race winner Tom Payn of Winchester.