CLIFF PATH RACE
(8 / 16Miles)
SUNDAY 8th OCTOBER 2000

Paul Ingrouille bided his time to overtake early leader Mark Anthony over the second half of the race and win the GIAAC’s annual 16 mile Cliff path race from South Esplanade to Pleinmont.

Despite a downpour just after the start Anthony powered clear of the field and built up a lead of nearly a minute over the opening 3 miles. The chasing group split just prior to the first major climb at Jerbourg with Ingrouille forcing the pace in a bid to close down on the leader. After a conservative start Pete Wickins was also running strongly but  Anthony continued his forceful front-running and passed through the Petit Bot half way point 59 seconds clear of Ingrouille and nearly 2 ½ minutes clear of Wickins.

The leader dramatically slowed  on the climb out of Petit Bot and was passed before the Gouffre. Wickins also passed Anthony just after the Prevoste watchtower, which marks ¾ distance, but by this stage Ingrouille was well clear and went on the win by nearly 3 minutes in a time of 1hr 51min 51sec. Mike Doyle also passed Anthony in the last mile to claim third.

Val Phillips was leading woman with Chris Greening having an inspired run to pass Chris De La Mare in the closing stages and gain second.  Despite missing her best time for the race it was Greening’s best cliff run for many years and a clear indication that she is in good shape for her Dublin Marathon target in three weeks time. 

Not content with competing in the previous day’s Alderney Half Marathon Bryan O’Meara and Ian Le Moigne comfortably competed their second race of the weekend to top up their preparations for the Himalayan 100 Mile stage race. Perhaps the most notable performance, however,  was that of 7th placed Mark Naftel who improved on his performance of last year by no less than 40 minutes.