DESPITE appalling weather conditions the Deal Tri Five-Miler still had 290 finishers from a start list of 365 with victory going to Christian Nicolson.

The torrential rain and gale force winds suppressed times considerably for most runners although Nicolson still posted an impressive time of 25 minutes 43 seconds.

Nicolson is now Canterbury-based after training for the Scottish Commonwealth Games team.

Last year’s winner, Neil Renault from Walmer, was placed second after a race-long battle with Deal Tri’s Phil Anthony who finished third by a fraction of a second. It was Anthony’s final appearance for Tri for a while as next week he leaves for a six-month training stint in Australia.

Deal Tri’s Jill Cliff was first women home in a time of 31:38, beating Tamara Nicholson by a minute and half. Continuing the female success for Tri was victory for Val Elliott in the vintage category. At the other end of the age scale fellow triathlete Michelle Read won the U-21 group.

In the team event the men’s prize was awarded to Medway & Maidstone AC, and in the ladies Canterbury Harriers.