Sean Trott and Gayle Lindsay claimed victories in yesterday’s Bermuda Healthcare Sir Stanley Burgess 5k road race in Prospect, the final race in the Legends Series as the pair also won overall titles.

Trott outpaced Chayce Smith to clock a winning time of 15 minutes, 56 seconds, 32 seconds ahead of Smith in 16:28 while Domico Watson placed third in 17:10.

Tommy Marshall (17.37) and Cameron de Ste Croix (17.51) completed the top five with Shannon Lawrence sixth in 18.13, Tim Price seventh in 18.21 and Dustin Luck eighth in 18.48.

Lindsay was ninth overall and the first female finisher as she finished with an identical time to Luck, 18.48, for a top-ten finish. Maddie Durkin and Florin Teleman were the second and third-place female finishers, finishing five second apart in thirteenth and fourteenth places with times of 19.35 and 19.40.

Trott, who is using the races in the series as a build-up to the Bermuda Day Half-Marathon, was particularly happy with his time as Smith pushed him over the course which started and finished in the parking lot of the BFA’s Clyde Best Centre of Excellence.

“I’m very happy with my performance today, this is my first time actually breaking 16 minutes in a road 5k,” he revealed afterwards.

“I’ve only ever done it on the track before, so to do it today was a great way to put me into May 24th. I’ve been training really well, I mentioned to a few people that I’m doing some new things in training this year to kind of shake things up a bit.

“I’m putting some new speed work and things in that I didn’t do before and this is a good sign that’s working and I’m hoping to carry the momentum into the next three weeks.”

The victory was Trott’s third in four races in the series, good enough to give him the series crown.

“I kept my miles training pretty high this week coming into this race,” he explained.

“I didn’t back off too much, so in another two weeks I’ll knock my mileage down a bit and hopefully freshen up”

The steady climb along Frog Lane from Devonshire Recreation Club up to the BFA office was a test for the runners, though many managed quite comfortably.

“It was a challenging finish, but early on there are some nice downhills and a bit of nice tailwinds on parts of it too, so it kept the momentum going,” He said. “The last little hill wasn’t too much of a challenge at all, really.”

The win was Trott’s third in four races in the series, the other going to Teddy Shum in the series-opening Ed Sherlock 8k in February.

“It was close, just a five second margin, that was early in the season too and I’ve sharpened up a lot since then,” Trott said. “I’m very excited about this year so we’ll see what happens”

Domico Watson, a regular participant in the series, claimed a fourth straight third-place finish.

Lindsay also had three wins in the series, capping it off with another good run yesterday.

“The series is always really good fun, I had to miss one race with a little bit of an injury, so I’m pleased I was able to make it out today and finish it off,” explained Lindsay who missed the Ray Swan 8k in March when Bella Wright was the winner.

“I’m delighted to come in first, it was a tough little course but I really enjoyed it. It helped that you know that the finish line is right at the top, Dustin was just ahead of me so he helped pull me to the finish line and I managed to just catch him on the line.

“It definitely helped take my mind off the pain of getting up that hill. It’s been a while since I’ve done a 5k so it was nice to get the legs going again.

“It was a good training run and hopefully I can keep up the training. May 24 will be the next one. Hopefully it can go ahead as planned with no interruptions.”

Watson won the open 20-29 age group while Wright was the female winner. Darryl Herrick and Sarah Thompson were the Masters (40+) category winners and Torcato Fernandes and Georgia Wharton the senior (50+) winners.

The winners in the over 60 veterans category were Tommy Sinclair and Zina Jones.

“This year marks the fifth year of the Legends Race Series,” said Marla Smith, 2022 race series coordinator. ”Though a bumpy start we have been able to have all four races in person this year and I hope that this is the start of getting road racing back to normal.“

To be eligible for prizes in the Legends Series, participants had to complete three out of the four races.

“The series was sponsored by MoonGate Insurance Group, The Reefs Hotel & Club, RUBIS Petroleum, MEF Group of companies, Performance Rehab and Lindo’s Group of Companies,” Smith added.

“I would like to thank these sponsors for assisting us with prizes as we are all aware that many businesses are struggling coming out of the pandemic, so we are glad that they were able to assist us with prizes.”