IT was record breaking all the way as Brendan Teer and Karen Alexander showed their class in the GR8 Dundrum Run.
Teer, the defending champion, was quickly at the head of affairs along with David O’Flaherty and Paul Carlin as the 675 strong field left Main Street in the village.
Teer came to the finish in 44:49 to knock almost three minutes off his own record. Phil Wood was two minutes back with Marty Rea just clinching third from David O’Flaherty with all four inside the old time. Paul Carlin, third last year, came fifth this time with Brian Young, Brendan Grew and Atchison completing the top eight.
Karen Alexander was simply superb. The World Mountain silver medallist, second in this event to Cathy McCourt 12 months ago, took control from the start as the injured Cathy watched from the sidelines.
Karen passed the check point before two miles with 47 seconds advantage over Shileen O’Kane. Sinead Murtagh, Hazel McLaughlin, Anne Sandford and Diane Watson were disputing third half a minute back.
The gap was over three minutes as they came to eight miles. Shileen was still isolated in second with Hazel, Anne and Diane closely grouped in the battle for bronze.
Karen stormed down the long finishing straight to cross the line in 52:05 over a minute inside the old record. Shileen held second with Hazel just grabbing third by three seconds from Anne with Diane close up ahead of Jennifer Ashby.
l IRISH champion Eddie McGinley came third in the Gerry Farnham Memorial Cross Country in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The Annadale strider followed David McCarthy and Michael Mulhare to take bronze in his first cross country outing of the season.
European champion Fionnuala Britton won the ladies from Sarah McCormack.