Bermuda’s Dage Minors blitzed the field to retain his Butterfield Invitational Mile crown on Front Street last night.

The 28-year-old showed patience among the lead group of five runners before breaking away over the final 300 metres and crossing the line in 4min 20.61sec to win the race for the third time in total.

“I was very pleased to get a hat-trick of victories,” Minors told The Royal Gazette.

“I think it bodes well for the rest of the year, which is the main point of this race. Get a good start to the new year and then push on from here.”

The defending champion was the favourite as the only professional athlete in the field and he set the early pace before taking his foot slightly off the pedal mid-race and waiting for his moment to pounce.

“When you are the favourite, you know you will be able to dictate the race in a way,” he said. “I know that they would feed off me and what I was doing, so I wanted to make sure I got out hard, set an honest pace and I just tucked in until it was time to go for the win.”

Minors was happy with his time, which was five seconds slower than his personal best, which stands at 4:15.

“’The time, 4:20 with celebrating in between and a little bit of stumbles, I’ll take it,” he said.

“The way that I felt it was an honest, even effort from the beginning and I could have ran 4:12 to 4:13, but I’ll take the win, which is all that matters.”

Crossing the line in second more than two seconds behind Minors was American Marcel Aubry in 4:22.18.

“Honestly, I am happy and I knew the competition was going to be tough with Dage in the race,” the 23-year-old said.

“This is my first race for the season and I just wanted to test myself out, see what I can do and race hard.”

William Sanders finished in 4:22.83 and was pipped for the runner-up spot by compatriot Aubry in an exciting sprint to the line by a mere 0.65 seconds.

“I had quite a few photo-finishes back in my day in college, but I didn’t think that I got second,” the 36-year-old said.

“I didn’t think I was as well trained as today showed up, but I bettered my time from the race we did to qualify for this by a bit, so I am quite happy about that.”

Thrilled with her performance was Amy Piccolo, who came from behind to win the Invitational Mile women’s race in 5:17:99.

The 26-year-old American outkicked compatriot Elise Lambert in battle to the line and savoured the thrill of victory.

“I am really excited,” Piccolo said.

“I just came out to race and luckily I knew a lot of girls on the start line with me, so that made it a little more comfortable.

“Going into it my goal was to qualify for this race and I was really happy to do that. Winning was just like the icing on the cake of this great trip that I have been on.”

Lambert came home in 5:20:16, three seconds behind the winner and was delighted to get the opportunity to race in Bermuda.

“I feel great and had a ton of fun,” said the 23-year-old who led for the first half of the race.

“Just being here was the treat really. We were just so excited to come and everything has been amazing.

“The people here are so awesome and no matter the outcome of the race I was just grateful to be in Bermuda with all my friends and with all these amazing people.”

Completing the podium was Ashley Sanderson-Snyder, who finished third with a personal-best time of 5:30.35.

“I had no expectations and just wanted to come and have fun, and I did,” the 37-year-old said.

“It was amazing. I just tried to keep up as much as I could and got a PB, which is even better, and I am going to take it.”