during International Race Weekend, made a surprise reappearance on the Island yesterday, showing she had lost none of her speed.

Plastinina turned out in the Timeless 5K, essentially a fun event organised by Mid Atlantic Athletic Club where runners were asked to discard their watches and predict their finishing time.

And while there were no prizes for first place overall, the Ukrainian, who only last month won Grandma's Marathon in the US, clocked easily the fastest time by a female, 17 minutes and five seconds.

In a field of 143, she was beaten to the line only by first-placed David Dunwoody (16.02) and Mark Perry, whose impressive comeback from a lengthy injury lay-off continued with a 16.46 finish.

In January, Plastinina, who speaks little English, set a new marathon mark of two hours, 40 minutes, 50 seconds to pick up a $10,000 bonus and she plans on defending her title early next year.

Finishing behind her yesterday were top Master Andrew Doble (17.30) and Cal Steede (17.40) while young Mark Morrison clocked an impressive 17.42 to take sixth place.

Second woman was Anna Eatherley (19.22) followed by Jane Christie (19.57).

However, four runners -- Lecole Richardson, Mark Albouy, Hilton Brown and Chester Smith -- finished within one second of their predicted time with Richardson (23:46) taking overall honours as hers was the slowest time.