Charles Cilia was back on form at the Dingli 10 when he won in route record time of 54.21. It was a satisfying result for the AS Libertas athlete who had finished a disappointing second in last month’s BMW Malta Half Marathon.
“Today I was committed from the start. I didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the half-marathon where I held back too much,” Cilia explained before detailing his future plans which include a week’s training camp in Tunisia to prepare for the final race of the MAAA Road Running League, the Gozo Half Marathon and the Vienna Marathon.
As for the race itself, Cilia explained that he had been challenged early on by St. Patrick’s latest recruit, the Libyan Haitheim Ksheim.
“For the first four miles, he kept up with me but when we came the roads started getting steeper I could see that he was struggling so I opened up my pace.”
Having been cut off from first place, Ksheim looked set to land second but was beaten towards the end by last year’s winner Jonathan Balzan explained.
“After the marathon this is not a race that I should have run, especially as I’m still carrying an injury but I still decided to give it a go. Initially I thought that the gap between me and Ksheim was too much but slowly I started catching up until I finally overtook him. Having him in front of me helped a lot.”
Balzan thus finished second in 55.34 with Ksheim just behind in 55.43. His recent performances have been encouraging despite a variety of injuries – so much that he has been rewarded with a sponsorship agreement with Ron Hill’s www.enjoytherun.com – but this second place means that he will have to wait at least another year to equal Drew Lang’s record of four wins at this event.
The day’s ideal weather also helped many athletes register a route best. One of these was Angela Sammut who reclaimed the title she won last year but in a greatly improved time of 1.06.31.
“It was totally unexpected,” said the elated winner. “I’ve been suffering from a stress fracture so for weeks my only training was swimming. I didn’t expect to be so strong and to do so well but it seems that the less I train, the better I do. It is extremely gratifying.”
Second placed Carmen Hili was just as pleased seeing that she too had registered a new personal best.
Catherine Montebello finished third in 1.13.44 to confirm St. Patrick’s clean sweep among the women.
Apart from being blessed by good weather, this year’s Dingli 10 also saw an increase in the number of participants. “We’ve had over 130 athletes taking part which is a significant increase from the previous year,” explained race director Joe Zerafa whilst thanking sponsors Red Bull and Kristal.
Traditionally the Dingli 10 is held on 19 March but, coming so close to this year’s marathon, it was decided to shift the date to later on during the month. “It could be one of the reasons for the increase in participation,” Zerafa admitted. “However, the fact that the media have been very helpful and assisted us in promoting this event also had a beneficial impact.”