wake and cruise to victory in Saturday's men's International 10K.

Kenya's Ben Kapsoiya and American Michael Donnelly were neck-and-neck with Amyn as they turned into Frog Lane on the final approach to the National Sports Centre.

It was then a question of who had the finish and Amyn, who has been successful in middle distance running and finished eighth in the 1500 metres at the Sydney Olympics, was the one to make the break in the last 400 metres and he motored home in 30:08.

Kapsoiya couldn't handle the Moroccan's burst of pace and came in second in 30:16, around 60 metres behind his fellow African and five seconds ahead of Donnelly, to add to his third place in the mile.

Donnelly had led for the entire first half of the race, but he twice fell away from the lead pack on uphill sections of the last quarter of the course and caught up again on the flat, using valuable energy reserves which he missed in the latter stages.

For Amyn, the success made up somewhat for the disappointment of losing out in Friday night's Front Street Mile when he was pipped by just four hundredths of a second by Canadian Rich Tremain.

Another Kenyan, Francis Kirwa, who had stayed with the three leaders for the first four miles, came in fourth, while Canada's Matthew Kerr was fifth.

Kenya's Stephen Nyamu finished sixth and England's Paul Freary, going for his sixth Race Weekend title but not invited as an elite runner this year, finished seventh.

The first local home, for the second successive year, was Washington-based 1500 metres specialist Terrance Armstrong who finished ninth overall in 32:13, followed 16 seconds back by his good friend Jay Donawa.

Donawa had the added satisfaction of beating two elite runners, Americans Samuel Gabremariam and Phil Castillo.

And just seven seconds behind Castillo, in 14th place overall was local teenager Larry Marshall, who clocked an outstanding time of 34:02 to beat off another youngster, Mark Morrison (34:19) into 15th.

Morrison was reportedly still feeling the effects of a county cross-country meet in mid-week in England, where he now studies.

Speaking in French, the 22-year-old Amyn said afterwards: "I am happy today, because I won this race easily.

"For me, this was my first meet as preparation for the international cross country in Belfast next weekend. I also have two meets in the US this month and I am working towards the World Cross Country Championships.

"Then I will be building up to the athletics world championships, in Edmonton, Canada, in August, in which I hope Mohamed Amyn will be able to do something good in perhaps the 5,000 metres or the 10,000 metres.'' Armstrong went out hard with the leading pack and stayed with them for the first two-and-a-half miles.

"I figured I'd just go out with the lead runners and hold on as long as I could,'' said Armstrong.

"I figured Jay would be chasing me down and giving me a bit of a scare and something to run to the finishing line with -- and that's pretty much how it worked out.'' Armstrong said he was not in tip-top shape after being set back about a month in his training by an injury.

"It's an over-use injury which happened when I started doing 100 miles a week. That's a big step up from 70 miles which I've been doing for several years consecutively.

Amyn destroys 10K rivals From Page 27 "It kind of wore the ligament in my knee. I have to warm it before I go out and ice it afterwards. It's still not 100 percent, but it's getting better.'' Armstrong, who also finished sixth in the elite mile, had enjoyed his Race Weekend experience.

"I'm pretty excited to have had the chance to come home and be fairly competitive and get things going,'' he said.

"I didn't really know where I was at after my injury, but this has opened my eyes and at least let me know that I'm getting back towards where I left off and I'm very happy about that.'' Donawa said: "I went out with the front runners and at the first mile they left me. But that was OK, I was just trying to establish a rhythm and run within myself. If I'd tried to stay with them, I'd have blown up.

"This is the fastest time I've run on this course, which has always been difficult for me. In the second 5K, I've sometimes lost it mentally, but this time I really fought all the way home. I ran hard and I'm pleased about that.

"Last year, I didn't even see Terrance, but this time I finished on the track with him and for me, that's a big plus.'' Tightly bunched: Bermuda's Terrance Armstrong (8) and American Michael Donnelly (7) set the early pace as the runners head along Middle Road during the first mile of Saturday's 10K. Armstrong was the first local to finish in ninth place overall.