VIDEO: Heartbreak for third time winner of Jersey Marathon

Sunday 02 October 2016

Aleksey Troshkin has won the Standard Chartered Jersey Marathon for the third consecutive year.

But the Russian’s victory was tinged with disappointment – he failed to beat the record which he set last year, by just 13 seconds.

His time this year was 2:18:26.

In the women’s race glory went to Irish runner Nollaigh O’Neill in a time of just over three hours: “I’m absolutely so happy. The time was slow. I was hoping for about 2 hours 52 minutes – 2 hours 53 minutes. I would say I was fine up to mile 20 or 21, then my quads just started to seize, so I just had to pull back and run strong and smart for the last three to four miles. I knew I had no competition behind me, so that took a lot of pressure off me.”

It’s the first time the Cork-based athlete has competed in the race and she was full of praise for the event: “a great course. Beautiful weather. A bit warm, but it’s fabulous.”

This year two of the top prizes – for the first locally based man and woman to cross the line - have been re-branded. The Mitch Couriard Award remembers the honorary police officer who did so much to help organise and run the event and who died last year.

The men’s title went to James Faudemer: “I went out at a great pace at the start. The last three miles I started to get cramp. I just held on. I did it. So happy, so happy. The hard work paid off.” 

The race – which is in its 11th year – is one of the biggest annual sporting events to be held in the Island. Including the relay and fun-run it’s estimated more than 2,000 athletes took part.