BY running two minutes faster than ever before through the dunes and hinterland around Horseshoe and Warwick Long Bay beaches April Vesey has secured a place in the history of one of Bermuda's most gruelling, off-beat and smallest races.

She become the first Queen of the Dunes by beating all the male competitors in the traditional King of the Dunes event to win the Mid Atlantic Athletic Clubs' bizarre trophy made from an old pair of sneakers attached to a wooden base.

As the fourth winner of the twice-yearly title Vesey had the privilege of beating two past kings in the shape of former Commonwealth Games marathoner Brett Forgesson and original winner Simon Turner.

In the build-up to the event last Saturday, held less than an hour after sunrise, the competitors had run trials to assess where they should be placed in the race handicap, which sees those with the slowest predicted times head off first followed by the faster runners.

Vesey was the only woman in the nine-strong field and was first away. Perhaps it was the good-natured goading of a fellow runner who shouted out "You'll have to go faster than that if you want to win the King of the Dunes!" that spurred her to the historic win across an energy sapping two-laps covering five-and-a-bit miles.

Next to set off was Bob Oliver a minute behind and then there was a sizable gap before the remaining runners hared away from the start line in the car park below Warwick Camp.

Two weeks earlier during one of the weekly training sessions on the former cross country course Vesey had set her qualifying handicap time and in the race proper she reduced that personal best by a whopping two minutes. Too afraid to turn around to see if she was being chased down she passed a roadside vegetable stall in the final half-mile and called out to the vender asking if there was anyone behind.

Even when she was told there wasn't she did not relax and pushed on to claim the home-made trophy with an overall time of 51 minutes and seven seconds.

Her nearest rival was James Keyes, who had finished top ten in this month's Butterfield and Vallis 5K road race. He set off just over 12 minutes behind Vesey but had reduced the margin to a mere 34 seconds by the finish.

Fastest runner was former May 24 Marathon Derby winner Forgesson who was fourth in the handicap stakes with a total time of 37:42.

After the race a chalked-up finish line proclaiming King of the Dunes had the word King scored out and replaced with Queen as Vesey accepted her unusual winner's trophy and vowed to "feminise" the gold sprayed sneakers.

Final placings and overall times: 1 April Vesey 51:07, 2 James Keyes 39:26, 3 Simon Turner 40:07, 4 Geoff Blee 39:25, 5 Brett Forgesson 37:42, 6 Bob Oliver 52:25, 7 Scott Neil 41:56, 8 Stephen DeSilva 41:26, 9 Chris Page 44:52.