With a time of 33.33 minutes John Buhagiar upset the odds to win the Maqluba 10k, the first race of this year’s Eurosport Adidas MAAA Road Running League.

Whilst still considered a top athlete, the Birkirkara St Joseph runner hadn’t been expected to run so well after a summer of relative inactivity.

From the start a group of three athletes – Buhagiar, Gerald Grech and Charles Cilia – broke away yet none of them seemed willing to take any risks.

That changed at around the 5km mark when Buhagiar made his move and made a determined attack to move to the front. It proved to be decisive as his strong running gave the others very little chance of catching up.

Which left AS Libertas duo Grech and Cilia to battle it out for second place. Initially, it was Grech who had the upper hand but, unable to find the motivational push to keep him going, he was eventually overtaken by Cilia (33.50) and had to make do with third spot and a time of 34.14.

Among the women, it was St Patrick’s Giselle Camilleri (39.36) who came in firSt

The experienced athlete controlled the race from start to finish and intelligently stayed close to a pack of male athletes so as to pace her run better.

Another St Patrick’s athlete, Carmen Hili (40.51), was second with Cecilia Fenech (41.24) in third spot.

There was another excellent turnout of young athletes with more than 100 taking part in the various age categories.

Daniel Cassar (Pembroke Athleta) was first among the cadets followed by Adrian Bonaci (Starmax AC) and Matthew Rota (De La Salle). Jana Pace Cocks (Pembroke Athleta) won the same race amongst the girls, beating Marija Sciberras (AS Libertas) and Tamara Vella (Pembroke Athleta).

In the Youths, Ezekiel Micallef (St Patrick’s AC) was first ahead of St Paul Missionary College’s Christian Vassallo and Alexander Cini of De La Salle. Denise Law (Pembroke Athleta), Francesca Xuereb (Starmax AC) and Maria Scicluna (Pembroke Athleta) formed the order of finishers among the girl youths.

In the Intermediate (5km), it was Glenn Vella of De La Salle who came out on top. He was followed by Kurt Scerri (Pembroke Athleta) and Andrew Vella (Allcomers Aloysians). Among the girls, Pembroke Athleta duo Roberta Schembri and Marouska Cutajar occupied the top two spots with Marylin Schembri of Starmax AC coming next.

Mark Anthony Magro (Starmax AC) won in 18.02 in the Junior category. Behind him came Savio AC duo Clive Falzon and Matthew Farrugia.