St Patrick’s AC had plenty of reasons to celebrate as their athletes dominated the recently held Gudja Ronhill 8km with the men’s winner Haithem Ksheim even setting a new route record.

The previous best had stood at 26.48 yet the Libyan born athlete shattered it with an excellent run that saw him finish the race in 26.33. Already this year he had shown his potential in a number of 5km races and he certainly seems to excel in distances that are below the 10km.

Indeed, he is particularly strong towards the finish where he always seems to find an additional burst of pace to beat his rivals. That is what happened at Gudja where he only shook off Jonathan Balzan, also of St Patrick’s AC, in the final 300m. Impressively, Balzan finishing time of 26.38 was also some way better than the previous best. Third place went to Charles Cilia of Mellieha AC in 26.53.

There was no record in the women’s race yet Carmen Hili ensured that the organizing club won both senior events when she ran home in 32.37. Second place saw another St Patrick AC athlete in Marisa Muscat (34.09) whilst third went to Denise Borda of Zurrieq Wolves (34.58).

Next up for St Patrick’s AC is a talk at their clubhouse in Gudja on 26 October at 7:30pm about Long Distance Running in Malta. This talk that will be led by the club’s technical director Roger Zammit and will features speeches by some of the island’s most knowledgeable people on the topic such as John Walsh, Carol Walsh, Ivan Roshnov and Jonathan Balzan.

Apart from planning for the upcoming start to the MAAA Road Running League, St Patrick’s AC are also planning a trip to the Paris Marathon early next year. Anyone looking for further information is invited to visit http://www.stpatricks-ac.org, send an e-mail to [email protected] or call 9988 7807.