International Marathon champion Yelena Plastinina of the Ukraine made a surprise appearance, beating all but a handful of men, and husband and wife Brett Forgesson and Anna Eatherley combined for the fastest time of the day.

But it was the pairing of Tracy Wright and Jeana Godfrey who ran away with the major honours in yesterday's annual Fidelity Couples Race.

The novel event, one of the most popular on the local road running calendar for more than 20 years, turned up its usual mix of interesting teams with the Island's leading men and women prevented from joining forces in the open division by a seeding system.

So, while Forgesson and Eatherley, as expected, combined for the fastest time of 46 minutes, 37 seconds, they could only lay claim to the `married' prize as both were ranked.

That let in Wright, who trailed the ever-improving Morrison by just seven seconds over the five mile course, to take the top award along with Godfrey who placed seventh in 20:40 over the five kilometre course.

For the first time this year, organisers allowed men or women to decide which course to run, and for the team of Plastinina and veteran Peter Lever that proved a blessing.

Third at Grandma's Marathon in the US last week in a fast two hours, 33 minutes, Plastinina took on the men over five miles, allowing Lever to run in the shorter event.

Their combined time of 48:53 was just 21 seconds slower than Wright and Godfrey's. Third place went to Penelope Butterfield and Mark Perry in 49:45.

Morrison, partnered with top junior Flora Duffy, outpaced a classy field missing only Kavin Smith from the Island's recognised leading runners. He hung on to win in 27:45 ahead of Wright with master Sylvester Jean-Pierre close behind in 27:58.

Morrison and Duffy collected the junior couples prize. The masters award went to Andrew Doble and Kim Mason in 53:26.

Full results in tomorrow's Gazette .