City of Portsmouth’s Cassie Thorp celebrates return of Hayling 10 with outstanding time

In the third race of the 2022/23 Hampshire Road Race League calendar, Thorp was first female back in an outstanding time of 58 minutes and 27 seconds.

Finishing 14th - the highest placed runner from any Portsmouth area club - Thorp was almost three minutes ahead of Winchester & District AC’s Lucy Elliott, who clocked 1:02:07 for 40th place.

Two other City of Portsmouth AC members - Emma Jolley and Emma Montiel - were first and second respectively in the women’s over-40 age group.

In all, 555 runners braved the elements to take part in the race organised by Havant AC.

SEE MORE: Hayling 10 picture gallery

The race start was delayed due to a road closure on part of the A27, but at least the rain had stopped by the time it eventually started.

Just over two miles in, runners had to negotiate several patches of deep water on the disused Hayling Billy disused railway line, which for 2022 had included an extra mile of multi terrain.

Kurt Taylor (Bristol & West AC) was first to finish, recording a time of 51:22 - 12 seconds ahead of Andrew Penney (Hercules Wimbledon AC) with Harry Smith (Salisbury & District AC) third in 51:44.

Taylor was the third different winner in the 2022/23 Hampshire Road Race League, with Jaymee Domoney (City of Salisbury) and Stuart Nicholas (Bournemouth AC) having won the opening two events, the Overton 5 and the Solent Half on Southampton’s waterside, respectively.

The two next races are also both in the Portsmouth area - the Gosport Half on November 20 and the Victory 5 a fortnight later.

There are 12 races in all, with the final event taking place in Southampton - the Lordshill 10 - next July.