Jay Donawa led home a large group of 57 runners from Bermuda in the New York Marathon on Sunday, in a return to high-profile competition.

The former World Cross Country Championship runner has only competed in two low-key cross country races in Bermuda this year, but he decided to tackle the New York Marathon at the weekend and finished 186th overall out of 42,000 competitors with a highly creditable time of two hours 42 minutes and 37 seconds.

That time ranks as one of the fastest marathons run by a Bermudian in recent years. Donawa kept up a consistent pace throughout, running through the halfway mark in 1.17.43.

Not far behind was Bermuda's second athlete, Tony Banks. Competing in his debut at the 26.2-mile distance, he stormed to an opening halfway time of 1.18.59 and, like Donawa, managed to keep his pace mostly level all the way to the finish to clock 2.46.50.

Third back from the Island contingent was Geoff Blee. He had looked on target for a sub-three hour time until the final few miles as his strength weakened. Afterwards he said:

"I was going for 3.05 or under. The conditions were nice, there was some rain in the morning and it was in the mid-50s fahrenheit.

"I went through halfway in 1.29.56 and kept the pace going and was on target for three hours until around 22-and-a-half miles when I started to really feel it. But I'm pleased with what I ran."

He also spoke with Donawa after the race and said Bermuda's multi-national cross country champion had gone into the race without fully training for the distance, but was "very relaxed" and said he had wanted to enjoy the experience.

Blee's finishing time was 3.01.42, keeping him just ahead of Mark Wilcox who ran 3.05.13. In the women's race it was Melissa Thompson leading the way for the Bermuda athletes, running an impressive 3.17.25. She was followed home by Andrea Banks in 3.24.01 and Laura Haynes in 3.48.45.

The New York race, which this year marked its 40th anniversary, has always been popular with runners from Bermuda, but this year's turnout was exceptionally high and saw the Bermuda party take up a whole bus of their own to reach the start line.

The men's overall winner was Med Keflezighi (USA) in 2.09.15. The women's winner was Derartu Tulu (Ethiopia) in 2.28.52.