MIKE COLEMAN. of Medway and Maidstone AC, cruised to a runaway victory in the third Dover Mercury Half Marathon on Sunday.

The 23-year-old England cross-country international from Dover finished nearly five minutes in front of his nearest rival, Folkestone’s John Crean, in 1 hour 5 minutes 54 seconds as he slashed one minute 24 seconds off the course record set last year by Londoner Jason Simpson.

On a bitterly cold day, Coleman stamped his authority on the race from the start. He had already opened up a 45-second lead before the field of nearly 600 runners had left the Duke of York’s RM School grounds on their way to covering the 13-mile course which took in the villages of Guston, Langdon and Sutton before returning to the Duke of York’s.

Coleman, winner of the inaugural race two years ago, said: “I think the cold did affect the race a bit because we were running into quite a strong wind for the first eight miles. My legs were freezing and I couldn’t feel my fingers after a while, and so it was good to go under 66 minutes because that was my target before the race.”

Crean, a 31-year-old teacher at St Radigund’s School in Dover, had to settle for a repeat of his second-place finish 12 months ago as he came home in 1:10.42. Third place went to 19-year-old Neil Renault from Walmer, a team-mate of Coleman at the Medway and Maidstone AC, who finished in 1:11.59.

The bonus for Coleman and Co was that, for the first time, this year’s event also incorporated the Kent Half Marathon Championship, and so the Dover runner was able to add two titles to his already impressive honours list.

He added: “It’s nice to support this race because it’s my hometown event and I think the organisers, the Deal Tri Club, do a really good job.”

Coleman was using the race as a warm-up for this weekend’s national cross-county championships in London, and his performance last Sunday has lifted his confidence. He said: “I seem to be getting fitting every week at the moment.

“The good thing about (today’s) race was that I went through the first 10 miles in 49mins 46secs, which was eight seconds quicker than my time when I won the Canterbury 10 a couple of weeks ago, and it felt a lot easier.”

Crean, for his part, admitted that he and the rest of the field had been running for second place. He said: “I knew that Mike was going to win before we started because he is in such good form at the moment.

“If I had tried to stay with him I would have probably blown up after five miles, and so I decided just to run my own race and the time was about what I was hoping for.”

Renault, who is also competing in the national cross-country championships this weekend, collected the trophy for the leading Under 20 competitor.

The ladies’ title went to Helen Wheeler, of Ashford AC, who came home in 1:27.37.