After a night with barely any sleep, having hours earlier lost a close friend in a road accident, Jay Donawa dug deep to win the National Cross-Country Championship title on Saturday.He and Ashley Estwanik are the respective new men’s and women’s champions after a morning of fascinating battles around the testing course in the Botanical Gardens.Road running ace Donawa, who last month smashed his marathon best with a 2.30.44 time in New York was, for much of the race, merely one player in a tight four-way tussle between himself, Chayce Smith, Lamont Marshall and Sean Trott.The previous night a good friend of Donawa’s, Kirk Simons, 39, was killed in a road accident on Harbour Road. As a result Donawa spent much of the night at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where his friend eventually died from his injuries.“I wasn’t going to run today,” said Donawa, 38, after the race. “A close friend was killed in a bike accident and I’ve been at the hospital since 2 a.m.”He returned home around 6 a.m, but didn’t sleep.“I wasn’t really sure where I was today, I was just out there running in space. I want to dedicate this race to Kirk. He always had a bright smile. He was like a brother to me a slightly older brother. He had an infectious personality. He was a great, great guy and he’ll be tremendously missed.“Today I ran with a heavy heart. Kirk had such a bright smile and I pictured it as I ran that last lap. I was thinking ‘This is for you, Kirk.’ And I want to dedicate this race to him.”Over the years Donawa has proven to be practically unbeatable in domestic cross-country events. Saturday’s national victory was his ninth since 2000, and one of his career highlights was representing Bermuda in the 2005 World Cross-Country Championships in France.However, he had to earn his weekend victory as he found himself involved in a close company with younger rivals Chayce Smith, Sean Trott and multi-national road running record holder Lamont Marshall.Smith and Trott took turns to lead on the first of the six laps but things really unfolded on the penultimate lap as the two most experienced racers, Donawa and Marshall broke clear. The final lap turned into a two-man race between the pair. Donawa was running, as he put it, ‘in space’ remembering his late friend. He crossed the finish line in 31 minutes and three seconds, around 15 seconds ahead of Marshall. Trott was a further 25 seconds adrift, with Smith close behind.As he recovered, Donawa recalled his remarkable race in last month’s New York Marathon, where he clipped nine minutes from his lifetime best for the 26.2-mile distance.“I did not put myself under any pressure. I just wanted to have a solid race. I could see from my 5K splits I was running a good time,” he said.But he was also being cautious not to allow enthusiasm to cloud his judgement early in the event.“Every marathoner has that fear about how they are going to feel at miles 21 and 22. The halfway in a marathon is really at 20 miles, because if you are tired at that point the last 10K can be a very hard experience, especially on a course like New York’s.“I got into the Bronx, at 21 miles, and felt strong, then I saw some Bermudians, some cousins, at 22 miles and that lifted my spirits. I knew I was running pretty fast.”In Saturday’s women’s race Ashley Estwanik led all the way to claim the title she previously won in 2007. However, she too had formidable rivals in close contention, with eventual respective Masters division winner and runner-up, Victoria Fiddick and Karen Smith, pursuing her all the way.Afterwards Estwanik, a 1500 metres finalist in the 2006 Commonweath Games, described the course as hard, particularly as it featured so many ‘ups and downs’ and tight corners.As a highly successful track and road runner, cross-country has not featured so highly in her career. The current May 24 Half-Marathon champ had not planned to compete, until she was persuaded by Fiddick when the two met at the end of the week. However, Estwanik enjoyed Saturday’s outing, and said: “It is very different, but I used to run a lot of cross-country in college.”Fiddick considered the race a good workout. She is currently gearing down her training as she modifies her programme for specific target events in spring 2011.Other age division champions:Female (U-10) Mikaela Outerbridge; (U-12) Messiah Greaves; (U-14) Quasshie Douglas; (U-17) Rachel Fox; (U20) Taylor Ashley-Bean; (Senior Masters) Midge Oliver.Male (U10) Sajan Harvey; (U-12) Aaron Jacobs; (U-14) Paul Smith; (U-17) Juma Mouchette; (U-20) Trey Simons; (Masters) James Keyes; (Senior Masters) Mike Osborne; (Over-60) Eddie Fisher.