Lamont Marshall won the Crime Stoppers 5K with a heady pace that took him out of sight of his nearest rivals by the end of the 3.1-mile event.

Teenager Quaashie Douglas proved she is a name to look out for in the future, securing her first adult title, winning the women’s race.

Overall winner Marshall, 30, ran three sub-five minute miles back-to-back as he scorched to victory in 15min 11sec. It was his first road race on the Island since January, as he has focused primarily on track running this year.

Afterwards he admitted he found it difficult to judge his pace on the road, a point underlined by his opening mile, which was clocked at a blistering 4:37.

At that early point, there was a sizeable gap between himself and second-placed Stephen Allen, which allowed Marshall to readjust his cadence slightly. However, his superior cruising speed left no opportunity for any of his pursuers to make inroads into his lead.

“I wasn’t sure of the pace in the first mile. when I checked it was 4:37, which was probably too fast,” Marshall said. Despite his successful return to road running, he will continue to focus on track events and is planning to compete in overseas indoor meets in the new year. Marshall is also set to compete in the Jingle Bell 5K in Pembroke on December 14.

Yesterday’s event, which started and finished outside the Hamilton headquarters of race sponsors Argus, attracted just under 250 finishers in the 5K run and walk and 1.5-mile junior race.

Allen, who was runner-up in the 5K, was pleased with his time of 16:09, having gone into the race looking to run somewhere around 17 minutes.

In the women’s race Douglas, 16, stepped up from the junior ranks and led from start to finish. Her winning time was 20:15, which also broke the 16-19 age division event record.

“I got a little tired but I kept on pushing,” said Douglas. The teenager will soon be heading to St Johnsbury Academy, in Vermont, where she plans to join the school’s track team.

In the first half of the race she had fellow teenager Zakiyyah Showers for company. However, Laura Wright, 31, who ran a fast time in the Philadelphia Half-Marathon, still had something in the tank and eventually overhauled Showers, taking second place in a time of 20:29.

Praising winner Douglas, Wright said: “She had a good race. My legs felt a little bit heavy, but even if they hadn’t been I don’t think I would have caught her.”

Women’s winner Douglas was not the only runner to set a new age division record. Trevor Lindsay, 53, who was sixth overall, broke Calvin Steede’s men’s over-50 event record by more than a minute, finishing in 18:53. Maria Duffy, 62, lowered the women’s over-60 best by almost three minutes as she clocked 24:52

In the junior 1.5-mile race Sean Tucker, 14, stayed ahead of the rest to finish in 8:54, followed by Quincy Kuzyk, 13, in 9:11 and Adam Larson, 13, in 9:34.

Full results on page 14