Time was not of the essence to Morocco's El Afoui Boubker, but he made running a marathon look little harder than any other day at the office as he swept to victory in his first appearance in the Bank of Butterfield's Race Weekend.

For the record, he finished a comfortable winner in 2:23.15 and was never going to threaten Andy Holden's 2:14 mark on the previous course.

But then, as Boubker had predicted on Friday, the wind was always likely to make it a slow and tactical race.

"I was not very concerned about beating the record, I just wanted to be the winner,'' he said after finally shaking off the attentions of Russian Aleksey Balosludtsev, who had run side by side with him for the first 20 miles, as they left Flatts behind for the second time.

The pair, who had shared water and snippets of conversation -- no doubt in a hybrid of Arabic and Russian -- as they swallowed up the course in step with one another for so long, gradually eased apart and by the end there was a minute and 21 seconds between them.

Boubker added: "To make a world record here would be hard because you need a flat surface to run on.

"I took a very slow run because I thought the only person who was going to be a threat was the Russian, but it was not a problem.

" I knew it was going to be tough but I had faith that I would be the winner.

I've won the marathon so many times all over the world and I was used to the climate, although the wind was a problem.'' Balosludstev knew the game was up once Boubker really made his move -- knowledge borne of the fact that the Moroccan's personal best of 2:10 was four minutes better than his own.

"When he started to go, I knew that was it,'' said Balosludstev, through his interpreter, fellow runner Nail Zabarov, who acted as translator for the Russian contingent. "I knew he was stronger than me and was just concentrating on taking second place.'' Balosludstev barely slackened -- he just didn't have the extra gear that Boubker seemed able to slip effortlessly into over the final quarter.

Bermuda's Brett Forgesson came in third in 2:46:56 and there was recompense for the Russians as they took first and second in the women's race through Lyudmila Kortchaguina (2:52:51) and Valentina Shatyeva (3:01:01).

Kortchaguina was running her first marathon since returning to the sport following the birth of a child.

Kortchaguina, who has a personal best of 2:34, said: "I could run faster but not here because it is too hilly.'' Shatyeva, a two time world champion at 100K, said: "This is good training for me,'' adding: "I am not in such good shape now,'' although it was not immediately apparent to the naked eye.

"I was just comfortable to be in second.'' Forgesson said afterwards he was happy with his placing after injuring his knee four weeks ago and doing little training in the last month.

But he added: "It certainly wasn't one of my best times but I guess the field was a little bit reduced from what it's been in previous years. "I thought the conditions were actually quite nice. North Shore, the wind was mainly a cross-wind and even at times a tail-wind.

"I went out very conservatively and made up about five or six places in the second half of the race.'' Leon Bascome, running only his second marathon, was the second local man in, knocking half an hour off his previous best to finish in 2:54:07.

Annette Hallett took the honours in the local women's category, finishing in 3:18:57 and seemingly had plenty in reserve as she sprinted down Front Street to the line.

"I'm the world's worst show-off,'' she joked afterwards. "I knew however bad I was feeling, when I hit Front Street, I was going to show off.'' Hallett was running her third marathon -- her second in Bermuda -- and exceeded her own expectations. "I wanted to do 3:30, which is what I did in Washington and I came through in 3:18 which is much better than I expected,'' she said.

"The second time along North Shore Road was a challenge because the wind had shifted a little, but once I got out of that it was all right.'' Race Weekend photos by Tony Cordeiro, David Skinner and Arthur Bean Bermuda's best: Washington-based Bermudian Terrance Armstrong (left) chases England's Paul Freary during Saturday's 10K. Armstrong was the top local finisher, placing sixth overall.

Taking the tape: Russia's Lyudmila Kortchaguina reaches the finish line during yesterday's women's marathon and is congratulated on her win by race committee chairman Philip Guishard.