Berihu Tesfay in action

Exmouth Harriers were represented in each of the three races that make up the Dartmoor Vale Series, writes Dave Eveleigh.

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Dave Wright ran the marathon over a course which incorporates a particularly steep hill which has to be tackled twice. In only his second season of competitive running Wright recorded a highly respectable 3:26:10.

This gave him ninth place overall and first Over-50 Man in the incorporated Devon Marathon Championships.

Another relative newcomer to the local running scene, Stuart Pearson, was not far behind, finishing 19th in 3:28:58. Only the race winner dipped under three hours, and there were 136 finishers.

Exmouth’s ‘Super Vet’, Mick Allen completed the Half Marathon in 2:04:51 for 262nd place of 354 finishers, not bad for somebody in the Over-70 category, which he won comfortably.

The third race was over 10km and not only shorter but flatter.

Ethiopian guest Berihu Tesfay was a comfortable winner in a course record time by almost two minutes, of 33:30, despite three wrong turns early on which he was quickly alerted to by the sporting shouts of the chasing pack.

Cathy Newman was 26th overall, fourth female and a clear winner of the Over-50 Women’s section in 40:01.

Ellie Sutcliffe is only too aware of the Newman excellence over the years, but her respect for her Exmouth team-mate would not have lessened her pleasure at finishing ahead of her as she came in10th overall and first woman.

Sutcliffe was another to claim a new course record with a time of 38:10. He time chopping one and a half minutes of the previous best and it was just six seconds outside her best for the distance.