ATHLETICS: Victory for Varley in Western 10 Run for second time

Manx runners compete in Chicago & Chester Marathons

It's been a busy weekend in the world of athletics with Manx runners finding success in various different countries.

Starting at home though in the Western 10 Walk & Run.

In the run, a battle played out between Christian Varley and Andy Nash but it was Varley who had slightly more in the tank, pulling clear of Nash with a surge at the end of the Switchback Road to take his second consecutive victory in this race - the first time that has been done since Andy Barron won in 2013 and 2014.

Joel Smith came in third, and Ollie Chambers finished very strongly to pass Shaun McEntee and claim fourth spot. 

A strong run by Tom Hughes placed him sixth, and there was another fantastic run from V55 athlete Richard Shipway in seventh with Joe Andrews in eighth.

Ayrton Withington was first junior to finish, coming in ninth overall.

Kirsty Barber followed her victory in last week's cross-country with victory in the women's race, finishing ahead of Dawn Atherton who had beaten her in the Peel to Douglas two weeks ago. 

Jackie Lee came in third.

In the walk, Erika Kelly smashed her own women's walking course record with a time of just outside 85 minutes, more than five minutes faster than the previous record she set in 2017. 

Over to Chicago and at least five local runners completed the Chicago Marathon at the weekend. 

Out of them John Quaye was first to finish in 2:59:05, next in was Phil Caine in 3:26:19. Hot on the heels of Caine was Megan Thomas in 3:27:19 who was closely followed by Jade Zorab in 3:30:45 and Dave Hodgson in 3:55:02.

Closer to home, a number of Manx representatives competed in the Chester Marathon.

Paul Atherton was the quickest with a very impressive time of 2:34:32. 

Geoff Rice, Jonathan Pugh and Tommy Aindow all finished within three minutes of each other.

And fastest in the Metric Marathon (26.2 kilometres) was Rose Taylor with 2:47:59.