For the first time this millennium someone other than Jay Donawa is Bermuda's national cross-country champion.

A seven-year consecutive string of wins for Donawa, stretching back to 2000, came to an end on a rain-soaked Saturday morning at the Botanical Gardens when Chris Estwanik pulled a surprise in one of the most competitive championship races for many years.

Spectators dashed for cover under gazebo canopies as the heaven's opened, squinting through the teaming downpour to see a tight pack of four of the Island's fastest runners winding through the Gardens on the opening laps.

In close company were Estwanik, Donawa, Lamont Marshall and Evan Naude, and not far behind came former May 24 Derby champions Kavin Smith and Tracey Wright, now both over 40 and competing in the Masters' category.

Say what you like about this year's championship course-builder Mike Watson, he certainly has a sense of humour. Not content with finding a few extra muddy trails to funnel runners towards, he added half-a-dozen mini steeplechase jumps and, many suspect, placed a special order for the torrential shower that ensured no-one went too fast around the many sharp twists and turns on the one-mile loops.

Given the conditions, competitors were not overly surprised to find a few ducks waddling across the course mid-race.

Ashley (Couper) Estwanik, winner of the women's race, summed things up best: "With all the little jumps it was like a European-style cross country."

Her husband is a sub-four minute miler, but he has been moving up distance a little and showed plenty of stamina in the main six-mile race to keep ahead of the competition. Marshall, who was runner-up last year, put in a spirited challenge mid-race as he went ahead of Donawa to track Estwanik. But in the end no-one was able to stay with Estwanik who finished in 32 minutes 25 seconds, with Donawa next in 33:11 and Marshall just over a minute further behind.

Afterwards Estwanik, 27, said: "This was my first proper race since Ashley and I came back to Bermuda. I have so much respect for what Kavin and Jay have done for Bermuda, and for what Lamont and Larry (Marshall) are bringing as the next generation.

"I see my role as adding to the mix, adding that little bit of experience to the younger ones coming up. I spoke to Lamont afterwards and told him that he is a miler like me and it took me six or seven years to figure out how to do cross-country running."

The US international runner, who has a 1,500m best of 3:38 and has run sub-four for a mile on numerous occasions, said he was impressed by the increasing trend for Bermuda runners to seek out overseas competitions to test themselves against off-Island athletes.

For Estwanik the next goal in Bermuda is a crack at the Front Street Mile in January. He believes his near-term future lies in race distances up to five and ten kilometres.

The women's race pitted Ashley Estwanik against training friend Victoria Fiddick, just six days after Fiddick had run an impressive 1:26 in the BTFA half-marathon. Although the two were chasing different individual titles - Estwanik in the open category and Fiddick in the Masters' - the races were run together and saw Estwanik's superior turn of speed over the four miles as she finished in 24:21. Fiddick ran 26:29. Second and third in the Open women's race went to Mia Pauwels-Pedro and Sydney Richardson respectively, while Carol Griffith was second in the Masters.

Bermuda's Commonwealth Games track finalist Estwanik, whose most recent competitive race was a 1:24 half-marathon in Santa Cruz in April, commented: "I'm excited to be back in shape and racing. I knew Victoria was in the race and she was always going to be a contender. She did an amazing job in her half-marathon last week."

Like her husband, Estwanik is now looking towards International Race Weekend and the Front Street Mile and possibly the 10K race.

In the men's Masters' race Smith dominated as he put almost five minutes between himself and Wright, with Geoff Blee third.

This year's cross-country championships including more than 30 juniors, with Matthew Spring winning a particularly competitive under-17 race, and Kyla Bolden claiming a nine-second victory over Jordan Bascome in the under-12's two-mile race.