The 15th three-day Marathon came to a successful conclusion on Sunday 4th December, a week latter than planned due to the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Malta.

Out of the 54 Maltese registered entries, there were 47 males and seven females. From the overseas 40 registered runners there were 27 males and 13 females, a total of 74 males and 20 females.

From these 94 runners there were 37 senior runners, 9 females under 35 years old and 28 male under 40 years old. There were 57 veterans, 11 females over 35 years and 46 males over 40 years.

Nine countries were represented – America, England, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Scotland and Wales

Out of these 94 registered runners, 85 finished the complete “Challenge”.

The top runners this year were Maltese: Jonathan Balzan of St. Patrick’s AC in the male category and last year’s winner, Carmen Hili also of St. Patricks AC.

Dave Mansbridge could not attend for what would have been his 14th visit to the “Challenge” because of the date change.

From among the overseas runners, the surprises came from the British Army team of 10 runners, all based at Hammersmith Barracks in Herford, Germany. They were seven men and three women and have all won inter-services titles in the team category before.

This year the event was blessed with fantastic weather on all three days, no rain, no wind (very little) and mostly with sunshine.

The first stage on Friday saw Jonathan Balzan and Carmen Hili coming in first in 38’ 25” and 46’ 10” respectively

Stage 2 on Saturday at Birzebbuga saw Barry Stoddart (20’ 09”) of the British Army beating Jonathan Balzan (20’ 10”) by just one second; however Carmen Hili retained her first spot in a time of 24’ 18”.

The final stage on Sunday, started at Wignacourt Tower, St. Pauls Bay, a new start recently remeasured by AIMS.

Jonathan Balzan held a 57-second lead and Carmen Hili held a very comfortable 4’ 24”. It seemed that if Stoddart and Walsh, both from the British Army based in Germany were to catch Balzan but from as early as 2km, Jonathan pulled away and completed the 25km stage as a solo runner winning comfortably.

Hili also dominated the female section and was never challenged to win stage 3 and overall.

The organisers thanked all the Councils involved but mainly, Rabat, Birzebbuga, St Paul’s Bay and Valletta.

The Police gave us their best support under the circumstances backed up by various Scout groups and the St John’s Ambulance.

All together there are 20 senior awards, 10 male and 10 female. In the Veteran class, another 14 awards, 7 male and 7 female with 32 team’s awards makes a total of 66 awards. There were $4,000 worth of awards.

The date for this year is 24, 25 and 26 November 2006. Requests can be made to the race director by post to the Malta Challenge Marathon P.O. Box 91, Sliema, SLM 01