Dawes achieves main goal with new PB a bonus
STEVE DAWES has returned to winning ways on the road.
The quality veteran strode free of the competition early on to win yesterday’s Source Recruitment Liberation Seven, claiming his first major road victory in nearly five years.
He covered the Rousse to North Beach seven-miler in a fast 36min. 55sec. – despite warm weather and an unhelpful south-easterly wind direction – to beat Thierry Le Cheminant and Peter Amy by over 2min.
Taking almost a minute off his course best further proved that the past Island Games medallist and multiple Hampshire cross-country champion is running back into some very solid form.
‘It was decent enough,’ the 40-year-old said in modest fashion.
‘I just wanted to win really – I do not know how many more wins I have got in me.’
After apparently retiring almost a decade ago, Dawes made brief comebacks in 2017 and 2018 but now appears to be gaining some real traction.
This victory, after which he was ‘happy and surprised to find out I’d also ran a PB’, backed up earlier wins on trails and cross-country, plus several notable road podiums where he was edged out by younger athletes.
He now targets a fast run at the Edinburgh Half Marathon on 29 May.
Teenager Le Cheminant offered him a challenge yesterday, though, sticking onto his shoulder until just past Les Amarreurs – one-and-a-half miles in.
Dawes then made his move to pull 40sec. clear by Bordeaux at half-way and never looked back.
Le Cheminant held on for second in 39-01 after holding off closing veteran Amy, who finished 8sec. back as he continues his comeback from cancer and major spinal surgery.
Dave Mosley ran a strong but lonely race for fourth.
Generally it was a good day for the veteran comeback-seekers, with Jenny James edging Ulrike Maisch for women’s honours.
Island Games runner James, 41, had not raced officially since autumn 2020 before reappearing over Easter.
But here she dropped fellow veteran and 2006 European marathon champion Maisch – who, revisiting her heptathlon days as a German schoolgirl, had thrown an Island Games B standard in the javelin the day before – near the five-mile mark to win in 43-40.
‘That was really nice, to have her there,’ she said of her friendly rivalry with Maisch, who clocked 44-22.
‘I am coming back and my fitness is improving, so I am still a bit unsure what I can sustain.
‘I found something extra in the last couple of miles and moved on a bit, so I was really pleased.
‘I’m gradually getting back into it, really, and I will probably aim for a half marathon in autumn.’
Chloe Truffitt completed the women’s podium in a huge course PB of 45-53.
