Tony Brewer (Mile High) and Emma Stepto (Cornwall AC) both won their respective races in the last Sunday evening’s Sticker AFC 5 mile road race, sponsored by Hewaswater Garage but one of them had a much tougher battle to secure the top spot than the other.

In the Men’s race, Brewer and Colin Snook (Cornwall AC) were soon clear of the chasing pack, running shoulder to shoulder through the country lanes of this undulating five mile course, in the season’s seventh race of the Cornwall Grand Prix Series, sponsored by Cornwall Glass and Glazing. The pair were inseparable for the first four miles, before Brewer opened a small gap on an uphill section, which Snook closed a little in the final mile but was unable to get back on terms with the Mile High man, who won his third Grand Prix race of the year by six seconds, reversing the result between these two friends and adversaries, when Snook beat Brewer by four seconds in the Cubert 5 mile event, just eleven days previously. Afterwards Brewer commented, “I won the year’s first two Grand Prix races in January and February and then decided to take a break from racing and build up to the shorter summer races, so I am delighted that my plans seem to be paying off and I am looking forward to the Cornwall 10,000metre Championships and then the Summer Turkey Trot, over the next few weeks.”

Ken Walker, who was seventh at Cubert, came through in the closing stages to clinch third spot, beating Hayle’s Jordan Morant (4th) and Cornwall AC’s Paul Whear (5th) by nine and fifteen seconds respectively.

Stepto finished seventh overall, just seven seconds outside her 2013 fastest time on this course. Another Emma, this time Emma Schuck (Hayle Runners), continued her all round improvement in 2015, knocking almost one minute off her 2013 time, with Wendy Chapman (Truro Running Club) getting the better of Amy Sole(Mud Crew Trail Runners) to grab third place by a seven second margin.

Cornwall AC’s Men’s and Ladies team both returned to winning ways, completing the team double for the fourth time in Grand Prix races this year. The six scoring runners in the club’s Ladies team included Julia Pearce (11th) and Rachael Thomas (29th), who had both run a relay stage of around ten miles earlier in the day in the Classic Quarter Coastal Challenge. Cornwall AC enjoyed a comfortable winning margin ahead of second placed Truro Running Club, who in turn were also well clear of St Austell Running Club, celebrating, perhaps a little surprisingly, their first podium finish of the year.

The club’s Men’s team also included a Classic Quarter relay runner, Adrian Ball, shamed into running at Sticker by the two members of the Ladies team. Ball was the club’s fifth scorer in sixteenth position, with Cornwall AC twenty six points ahead of Hayle Runners, who were well clear of the Cubert team winners, Newquay Road Runners.

At Cubert in the previous Grand prix race, five athletes from three clubs with local connections won prizes in their various age groups. At Sticker the same five repeated the feat and were joined by two new faces.

Paul Whear (Cornwall AC), Katherine Martin (Mile High) and Jackie Cope (Falmouth Road Runners) all moved up from the runners up spot in their respective 45-49, 50-54 and 60-64 age groups to scoop the top prize. Kathryn Dormer (Falmouth Road Runners) again finished in second position in the 65-69 category and Helston’s sixteen year old Tom Slattery (Cornwall AC), who won the Under 20 category at Cubert, had to be content with second place but by only thirty one seconds. Slattery, who finished twelfth overall, was also amongst the prizes in the team event, being the third runner home in the strong Cornwall AC winning Men’s team.

Two more of Cornwall AC’s local contingent, Rob Beckett (Mylor Bridge) and Julia Pearce (Mabe) completed the ‘Magnificent Seven’ with Beckett finishing second in the 50-54 age group and Pearce third in the 35-39 section.