SYDNEY runner David Byrne has claimed his first Edgell Jog title in style after narrowly breaking the race record and defeating former winner Philo Saunders yesterday.
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Contesting the 7.5-kilometre race for the first time, Byrne surged away from his closest rivals down the Lambert Street hill and crossed the line in a time of 23 minutes, 33 seconds.
It was enough to shave a couple of seconds off Saunders’ 2012 race record.
Saunders himself, a two-time champion and now five-time runner-up, was 11 seconds behind when he got to the finish.
The pair spent time in the past running against one another on the track, and as such were well aware of each other’s abilities before the race began.
“I set sail pretty quickly at the start, Philo and I sort of took turns in doing the pacemaking for a while there before I started to get away a bit,” Byrne said.
“I had a bit of a break on him but he came back at me pretty hard up the [Esrom Street] hill, but I was able to get away again on the way down and hold onto the lead.”
The leading pair had the race mainly to themselves for the majority of the journey, with Orange runner Mitch Williamson in third throughout and holding his position through to the finish 38 seconds behind the winner.
After his surge down Lambert Street, Byrne was never headed and it was merely a matter of how much he would win by.
The experienced Saunders was strong enough to not let him gain too much of an advantage, but even with a big final surge he couldn’t reel in the leader.
“It was a pretty tough race, I tried to hang in there as long as I could,” the runner-up said.
“We go back to our track days together. Dave has gone into the longer races while I’ve stayed doing the short stuff. He was too strong today.”
It has been a big week for Byrne, who is branching into ultra-marathon territory.
“I had a 50km race last weekend, and an 8km run on Thursday night to support my sponsors, so it was pretty tough getting up for this race. I was shocking on the hills,” he said.
“This is a great event though, and a lot of legends of running have done it and won it, so I wanted to come out here and give it a go.
“The focus for me now is on a 100km race later in the year, and a few more like it in the future like The North Face 100.
“It has been a pretty good year for me, I won the Six Foot Track Marathon earlier on and a few other races here and there.”
You can see the complete Edgell Jog results and times here.