It was billed as a showdown between defending champion Jay Donawa and Kavin Smith. Instead, it proved to be nothing short of a cakewalk for the latter who cruised to victory in yesterday's Labour Day five miler, winning in emphatic style by more than a minute.

A year after being edged out by Donawa, Smith had his revenge and was never really challenged by by his rival who just didn't have what was needed on a hot, humid morning.

Running on a newly designed coursed Smith set a new record of 25 minutes and 18 seconds. Donawa was second over the line in 26:38, while his younger brother Michael finished third in 28:15. Sheldon Thompson was fifth in 28:48 and Leon Bascombe fifth in 29:12.

The top woman finisher was defending champion Victoria Fiddick in a time of 33:32, edging out Georgia Wharton who came home in 34:02.

A good crowd showed up to witness what they hoped would be another intense battle between Donawa and Smith. The two were closely placed over the first two miles with Smith leading the way, but afterwards he turned on the style and left Donawa in his wake.

"I don't know where Jay was at the time but I knew that if he was going to run with me today he was going to have to be in pretty good shape," Smith said. "We went through the two mile mark in 9.45 and he was hanging in there until then. I expected him to be right there awhile longer, but I don't know what happened.

"Today was a good benchmark for me, I really feel good although it wasn't such a good day to run fast. It was a totally different course, probably a slightly faster one."

Smith said that now he would now saying he wanted to beat his best time of two hours, 29 minutes.

"I am going to set a goal and I am going to train for that goal," he said. "It's going to require a lot of discipline because it's going to slow me down a lot. I am 36 now and I haven't run the time I want to run for a marathon and it hurts me."

A disappointed Donawa paid credit to Smith.

"I came into the race hoping to run a 26:30-something and that's what I achieved. I was hoping that nobody would run faster than that but I guess Kavin had other ideas," he said.

"He ran fast and up to his fitness level and I give him credit for running the type of race he did.

"For me, the summer has been gentle training, no hard stuff, but at least now I know where I am at and can build on it for 2004."

He added: "I actually am in a good predicament.

"I think Kavin and I are the only ones who can help each other, nothing against the other guys. I don't accept defeat but I can accept anybody who produced a good time like he did."