The 18-year-old athlete and footballer claimed women’s honours on an occasion otherwise memorable for the resurrection of the classic Stonecrusher course at L’Ancresse East, while Steve Dawes emerged as a more predictable men’s winner at this second round of the rebranded CA Duquemin Cross-Country Series.
Although Jamieson has previously taken podiums in the series, this marked a hard-earned step up to the top spot.
‘Really pleased for my first senior win,’ Jamieson said.
‘I’ve been training well, so it’s good to see it pay off.’
Last run in 2021, the varied Stonecrusher course had long been a popular cross-country fixture, enough so that it overcame newer opposition and earned its place in this season’s series after a poll held by Guernsey Athletics.
Its return was greeted by uncharacteristically sunny conditions and with them a large field of 190 finishers in the main race, though a modest headwind did make for tougher going on the brief coastal stretch in the middle of each lap.
The top seniors contested four circuits of each just under a mile, mixing flowing cinder tracks with punchy hills and some tight, technical sections.
Current Guernsey Ultra champion Mark Jeffreys shook up the pecking order with a rapid start, which enabled him to lead for a good chunk of the first lap.
However, once veteran Dawes took charge, there was nothing and no one to stop him striding away.
He backed up his victory in the Delancey opener with a time of 21min. 41sec.
Reflecting on the moment he caught up Jeffreys, he said: ‘It was a solo one from there, really, and I didn’t really know what was going on.
‘But I’m happy with it. I didn’t feel brilliant today but I got around and got the win, so happy days.’
In the absence of any immediate off-island targets in cross-country, and given his ongoing hamstring niggle, he will be aiming to win the domestic series for a 13th time.
Next month’s Guernsey Cross-Country Championships will also be very much to his liking.
‘I like six-mile, muddy cross-country races – those are more of my thing,’ he added.
James Priest secured his second runner-up placing of the series, posting 22-36, getting the edge on George Mason by just 4sec. after an ongoing duel.
U17 triathlete Freddie Furley had a great run for fourth in 23-03, just 3sec. clear of the in-form Mikey Ingrouille.
Louis Le Cheminant (23-13), Jeffreys (23-22) and the returning Ed Mason (23-41) also went under the 24min. mark.
The other veterans’ interest included Pete Amy just getting the edge on a returning Mike Wilesmith to be the second over-40 athlete.
U20 Jamieson’s victory had followed misfortune for her closest rival on the day.
She had trailed Eloise Scholes for much of the race, but the emerging middle-distance star twisted her ankle and only completed three laps, which provided an extra opening for her to finally take top spot.
The dedicated youngster posted 26-10, leaving reigning champion and race one winner Nix Dobson settling for runner-up 17sec. back.
The first-time winner, whose only prior Stonecrusher experience comes from early in her athletics career, also enjoyed the change of route.
‘The course was like running a new course, which was enjoyable because I had to work out how to run it during the race rather than from past experiences,’ she added.
Hybrid athlete Katie Birch claimed her best series position yet with third, clocking 26-37.
Susie Armstrong, who has previously represented Guernsey at the Hampshire Championships, marked her return to racing with fourth in 27-58.
U15s Max Roger (17-30) and Indi Warren (20-56) came out top in the three-lap support race.
Over the two-mile U13 and sport race, the honours went to a flying Paul Friedrich (11-02) and Erin Greenfield (13-07).
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.