to Princess road race in convincing style yesterday.

Donawa cruised over the finishing line at the Whaler Inn in 37 minutes, 56 seconds, nearly three minutes ahead of his closest rival, Tracy Wright, after he ran most of the 7.2-mile course alone, way out in front.

Another defending champion, Anna Eatherley, was also a comfortable winner in the women's race, in 44:04.

Donawa said he had aimed to emulate his winning time of last year -- 37:37 -- but conditions had been tougher.

"There was a head wind blowing down Harbour Road,'' said Donawa. "I really pushed myself for the first three miles, but then I realised it would be too much of a fight to keep it going down there.

"And with the (Race Weekend) 10K coming up in six days, I wanted to save myself a bit. But overall I'm pleased with the way things went.'' Donawa said that front-running with no rivals in sight had its drawbacks.

"People think it's easy, but it's not,'' he said. "You're always thinking that you're running slower than you actually are and even though you have a minute or two on somebody, you always think they're closer to you. Really it's a battle within yourself and that's the hardest part.'' Eatherley finished fifth overall just behind third-placed Mark Albouy, the first master (43:41), and fourth-placed Tyler Butterfield (43:49), who overtook her on the steep hill up to the Southampton Princess Hotel. Like Donawa, she had one eye on next weekend.

"I don't think it was quite as fast a race as last year, but I just tried to run a hard 10K and then let the hill take care of itself,'' said Eatherley.

"When I got to the bottom of the hill, I was with Mark and Tyler was behind me but then those guys left me -- I'm not too hot on hills. My mile including the hill was 6:11 and I was quite pleased with that.'' Wright's second place came despite his putting in a few extra miles.

"This was a training run somewhat, as I ran seven miles before the race,'' said Wright. "I ran from the finish to the start and then ran back again.

"I'm about three weeks into my new schedule, training for the marathon. I hope to go to the Paris marathon in April and this was all part of my training for that.'' Harry Patchett came in sixth in 44:49 and won the 50-plus age category, while the second woman to finish was 27th-placed Annette Hallett (49:03), also the first female master. There were 159 finishers.

In a Mid Atlantic Athletic Club junior race run over the last two miles of the Princess course, Kor-von Tucker was the first boy over the line and Flora Duffy the first girl.

Organisers declined to release the results of the junior race as it was a club-only affair after local athletics governing body, Bermuda Track and Field Association, controversially refused to sanction the event.

It's understood that more than a dozen members of the Pacers Club, originally entered, withdrew from the race because it had not been sanctioned.

Full Princess results see Scoreboard