Chayce Smith was hotly pursued in the first few miles of the Ray Swan Flat 8K road race, before breaking away to make it two victories out of two in the Swan’s Running Club Legends race series.

In the women’s race, Laura Wright also clocked up her second win of the four-race series, but was closely chased all the way to the finish line by two rivals. Smith led the field of 83 runners from the start line at West Pembroke Primary School to the finish at Shelly Bay.

In the first two miles he had Artur Paulino on his heels. Paulino grew up in Bermuda and has recently returned to the island.

He has specialised in middle-distance track running, and his turn of speed was evident as he kept pace with Smith as the pair broke clear of the chasing pack.

At two miles, Smith started to pull clear, while Tim Price, who had set off at a more conservative pace, closed down on Paulino and eventually passed him.

Smith won in 27min 43sec, with Price next clocking 28:35, and Paulino third in 29:28.

In the women’s race Wright led, but for a long stretch ran in the company of eventual runner-up Teresa Humphrey, while Anna Laura Hocking made steady progress to close the gap on them both.

Wright, who competed in last weekend’s New York City Half Marathon, opened up a lead around Flatts and stretched it in the final mile to win in 34:11, finishing eleventh overall.

Humphrey was next to finish in 34:37, followed by Hocking in 34:42. Yesterday’s race honoured Swan, a former Olympian and two-times May 24 winner with victories in 1978 and 1981, when he was a masters’ category athlete. Swan, now 79, was twice the male masters’ runner-up in the Boston Marathon.

The Legends race series also honours Ed Sherlock, together with the late “Sir” Stanley Burgess and Ludwig Cann.

Age division winners in yesterday’s race among the men were Tyler Kelly, first 16-19 in 35:52, Omari Hart was first master in 31:03, Kavin Smith was first senior master in 30:39, and Frederick Steede was first over-60 in 35:31.

Among the women, first master was Shana Griffiths in 37:38, first senior master was Jennie Kelly in 44:08, while Mayberline Black won the over-60 division in 46:58.

The 8K walk was won by Gilda Cann in 60:37, followed by Zharia Bean in 63:39, and Sinclair Smith in 64:00.