Priest finishes with three wins from four

But while Sunday’s short-and-sharp L’Eree to Vazon 5km finale saw the established star enjoying another good battle with rising star Thierry Le Cheminant, his training ally Sarah Mercier had no lasting rivalry as she sealed women’s honours on her racing return.

This point-to-point coastal course, which is now the chosen route for Good Friday in next month’s EY Easter Festival, suffered an unfortunate roll with wind direction for the third time running last weekend.

Priest could therefore take encouragement from his relatively quick winning time of 15min. 57sec.

On a morning when predominantly easterly winds seemed to cost competitors nearly half a minute, the Island Games runner and keen sailor broke away from 17-year-old triathlete Le Cheminant at Richmond and finished strongly to win by 16sec.

‘Always knew it was going to be a tough battle with Thierry and we were neck-and-neck for the first 3.5km until I managed to pull away at the end,’ said a runner whose course and overall road best is 15-46 from a much more favourable day in August 2020.

‘The wind was not ideal, but I have run this course and others in far worse conditions – it was definitely much better weather for sailing this weekend.

‘Overall happy to have gone sub-16, which was my aim.’

Peter Amy made his first racing appearance in six months and endured a lonely run to take third overall and top veteran in 17-06.

Not far behind came a close three-way finish, where the improving Toby Mann posted a road PB of 17-28 to pip Island Games man Carl Holden (17-30) and surprise package Andrew Willis (17-31).

Among the women, Guernsey 5km record-holder Mercier proved dominant as she competed for only the third time in 12 months.

Enjoying a relaxed approach to running after several setbacks in recent years, the past Commonwealth Games athlete cracked the overall top 10 with 17-58 as closest challenger Nix Petit followed just over a minute later.

‘Really enjoyed the race – it was great to be able to take part in the series,’ Mercier said ahead of hopefully lining up at next month’s Easter Festival.

‘I just wanted to run and see where my fitness is, but overall happy with how the race went.’

In-form racing regular Petit pushed hard for home only to end up finishing squarely on the 19min. barrier.

Yet she still claimed a road PB and finished just 4sec. down on her best track time from last summer, which augurs well for future races in more favourable conditions.

Liz Dudin closed off the women’s podium in 20-19.