Kenia Sinclair won the inaugural Elite Women's KPMG Invitational Mile on Front Street last night.

The Jamaican led for much of the race and won with a time of 4:44 but she was pushed all the way by little-known Ethiopian, Aziza Aliyu, who finished two seconds back. Sinclair's training partner, Korene Hinds, made it a Jamaican double, finishing third a further six seconds behind.

Sinclair is one of the world's top 800 metres runners, and finished sixth in the final of the 800 metres at the Olympics in Beijing last summer. She pulled away early alongside Aliyu and Hinds as the trio opened up a considerable gap by the time they approached the second turn.

Hinds was the first to falter, dropping off the front two, but Sinclair and Aliyu went stride for stride down the last third. The Jamaican opened up a slight gap in the sprint for the finish and just held on as Aliyu pushed her all the way.

A late entrant into the race, Sinclair was using last night's run as part of her warm-up for the 2009 track season, something that was only underlined by her relaxed approach to the race.

"I started practising very late as I didn't have an early event on my schedule (for 2009)," she said. "I was supposed to start competing in April, but my coach decided that it was going to be a good run, so told me to 'go have fun', and accompany my training partner (Hinds) and I did."

It was Sinclair's first time in Bermuda and one of the rare occasions that she has competed over a mile.

"I'm an 800 metre runner, so running the mile is just for strength, but this morning we did a little loop (of the course) twice, and just to see the little inclines so I knew where to run, where to relax, and I think mapping out the route was interesting, and I just decided I was going to go out there and compete like a champion and I did."

The Jamaican is returning to Florida to concentrate on preparing for the 2009 season, the highlight of which is the World Championships in Berlin.

In the local women's race, Jennifer Alen went one better than last year, winning a hard-fought race with Victoria Fiddick, in a time of 5:24.

With last year's winner, the pregnant Ashley Estwanik, never in serious contention the pair battled away for much of the race opening up a 40-metre gap on the rest of the runners by the half-way stage.

From there it was just a case of who would finish strongest, and after the second turn Alen's younger legs made the difference as she pulled away in the closing 500 metres.

"It feels great, I've been training hard, it's paid off and I'm pleased with tonight's result," said Alen. "Everything's come together, and I'll be back next year to defend my title."

Fiddick's time of 5:30 was a personal best for her over the distance and she was delighted with her night's work. "I'm happy with my performance, I PB'd and so I did my best run I've ever done for the mile. I'll take it, it was second, but still a good win for me," she said.