Egdon Easy
UNUSUALLY for a road race, Weymouth’s Egdon Easy 10k is run on Saturday evening, which provides an interesting alternative to the usual Sunday morning race day time slot.
The race is traditionally held on the bank holiday weekend at the end of May and is organised by the Egdon Heath Harriers who also stage a number of other running events during the year, including the off road Maiden Castle Loop (10th July) and the Weymouth 10 (23rd October).
This year’s Egdon Easy took place on an overcast, blustery Saturday evening with a modest sized field of 207 hardy runners turning out to brave the predictable inclement May bank holiday weather.
The race got underway at 7.30pm from the car park situated next to the race headquarters at Weymouth College. The course was a mixture of road and tracks with runners completing a short loop around the adjoining Lodmoor Nature Reserve, before returning to the college and setting off on a second, longer loop which culminated in a final straight 2k run-in to the finish along the windswept Preston Road.
This year, the only Stubbie to venture west for this 10-kilometre race was Mark Le Gassick who finished third in a time of 33mins 37secs, matching his third place finish earlier in the month at the Netley 10k (33.17).
The race was won by a Kenyan athlete, Haggai Chepkwomy 
of Bristol & West AC, in a time of 32mins 22secs, finishing comfortably ahead of second placed Jon Sharkey of Bournemouth AC who crossed the line in 33mins 23secs.
The following day, Chepkwomy travelled to north Hampshire to run in the Ropley 10k where he was involved in a close fought sprint to the line with Winchester & District AC’s Toby Lambert. Both recorded a time of 32min 14secs with the race referee giving the nod to Lambert.
On bank holiday Monday, the Kenyan athlete headed to the south coast for the D-Day 10k where this time he made sure that there would be no doubt over the result by taking victory in decisive fashion in a time of 31mins 19secs, 1.15 ahead of second placed James Baker (32.34).