Good turnout for Boxing Day Fun Runs

With registration opening at 9am it was a small trickle of runners who first turned up at Casemates. Slowly as the final half hour approached the numbers begun to increase. For many this was a break from the days of feasting, stresses of Christmas shopping and preparing for family get together. For a few it was a chance to get back into action after a short break in which fitness and conditioning had taken a second place in their lives.
Small groups gathered around Casemates, from a young group of teenage girls who would take part in the 3km town run to the company groupings joining in the fun to the more serious runners and regular recreational runners such as Carpe Diems teams and Lourdians.
Which fifteen minutes for the start a long queue of runners formed, many still needing to register having not done so earlier. Few though warming up for the event as the clear signs that this was mainly a fun run were clear to see.
Santa hats, elf hats and pyjamas adorned many, including some of the more serious runners.
From young runners, some still in infant schools accompanied by parents to youngsters on their scooters and bikes who would be riding alongside parents it was a family day out for many too.
Already with fifteen minutes to go some two hundred runners had turned up in what was a chilly but fresh Tuesday Boxing Day morning.
Late minute changes into fancy dress costumes in the cold, with much chatter and socialising brought the event together as has been traditional every year. The Boxing Day Fun run stretching back several decades, some years under pouring rain, recently with the restrictions of the pandemic in place but generally well attended.
Quite aptly the 3km race was completed by the Baldachino family who were raising awareness for Pancreatic Cancer. Just seconds from their arrival Kelvin Gomez came in with a time of 34.34. Gomez having completed the ten kilometre round the rock race and the first to come in.
Next up was Da’An of Carpe Diem with Maurice Turnock of Lourdians third in immediately after.
Robert Matto was to finish fourth with a fast finish as the final walkers with their dog arrived to complete the 3k. Both sets of runners for the 3k and 10k converging now at the finish line.
Runners from the 10k run started to come in streaming in intermittently as the fastest of the runners arrived well ahead of the main pack of runners.
Tamara Tislauri was the first of the females to come through the line in a sprint finish against a group of male runners.
Two other females, not regulars in road running competitions coming in before Kim Baglietto who dropped her first race of the season. Highlighting how this was not considered one of the key races of the season but more of a recreational race for most of the runners.
As runners continued to arrive organisers presented the trophies to the twn kilometre winners, Gomez getting some banter from his running colleagues who joked about his undecisiveness on whether to run or not on the day before the race.
Representatives of Image Graphics presenting the David Grant Memorial Shield which will see the names of the winners added for 2023.