DOUBLE Olympian Dan Robinson showed his class as he won the Dursley Dozen for the first time on Sunday.

The former Great Britain marathon runner joined 446 runners who made it to the start line in heavy rain.

It was a close run race with Lee Rankin leading Robinson out on to the golf course after the first ascent, but both Stroud AC Runners were behind Rob Minton of Stratford. Robinson eventually emerged out of the woods at the top of Whiteway first, whilst Rankin continued to work hard in third position. Even though he was on unfamiliar terrain, Robinson was able to pull away from his chasers to win by just under a minute in a time of 01:26:12. Rankin was able to pass Minton to take second place.

This time was almost seven minutes slower than the 2011 winning time of 01:21:22, giving a fair indication of how difficult conditions were.

Annabel Grainger from Bristol and West was the first woman home in 15th place overall in a time of 01:35:28,also claiming the FV35 prize.

It was a long wait for the second woman to come home with Kate Wright of Stratford AC finishing second in a time of 01:44:50, again claiming first in her age category (FV45). The first senior woman, Petra Vymetaloia, finished in 01:49:02.

The course was particularly challenging, with mud up to the runners’ knees as they descended to the New Inn at Waterley Bottom, and even the relatively benign slopes up from the New Inn were very slippery. Despite having to provide a host of marshals and volunteers for the other tasks involved in putting on one of the town’s largest sporting events, Dursley Running Club fielded 21 runners. A close race took place between the leading Dursley runners of Daniel Anderson and Laszlo Berdan. Anderson, an experienced Ultra Runner, just had the edge on Berdan, finishing in a time of 01:40:37 in 34th place, with Berdan 41 seconds behind in 35th place. Veteran Dursley runner Kevin Jackson finished in 01:40:38 (4th V50) with Brad Johnson finishing 17 seconds in arrears.

Leslie Pedrick was third V65 in 2:30:15 and Kate Browning was first FV40 (01:57:24).

Alice Lewis and Zoe Johnson both achieved top ten finishes in their age categories. Margaret Johnson, running with Rachael Johnson, ran well to finish in just over 2:20 with Zoe Fowler and Rachal Carter only eight minutes behind. Mathew Sutton was Dursley’s Lanterne Rouge.

Category winners: FV35 Annabel Grainger (Bristol and West AC), 01:35:28; FV40 Kate Browning (Dursley AC), 01:57:24; FV45 Kate Wright (Stratford AC), 01:44:50; FV50 Sue Tanner (Chippenham Harriers), 01:59:15; FV60 Jenny Mills (Launceston Road Runners), 02:02:47; Mv40 Miguel Mundinano (Cheltenham and County Harriers), 01:30:38; MV45 Christopher Harry (Liswerry Runners), 01:35:36; MV50 Stephen Goulding (Swindon Harriers), 01:34:58; MV55 David George (Westbury Harriers), 01:49:11; MV60 Neil Grant (Chepstow Harriers), 01:49:41; MV65 Robert Anderson (Liswerry Runners), 02:18:19.

Dursley AC Results: 34 Daniel Anderson, 01:40:37; 35 Laszlo Berdan, 01:41:20; 47 Kevin Jackson, 01:43:58; 50 Braddan Johnson, 01:44:15; 68 Hayden Smith, 01:47:40; 116 Gareth Bradbury, 01:53:48; 125 Ian Hobbs, 01:55:33; 259 Kate Browning, 02:12:17; 166 Richard Clarke, 02:01:34; 259 Joe Browning, 02:12:17; 281 Zoe Johnson, 02:15:10; 289 Mike Leeson, 02:16:38; 329 Margaret Johnson, 02:21:49; 330 Rachael Johnson, 02:21:49; 340 Jerry Fowler, 02:23:52; 363 Leslie Pedrick, 02:30:15: 366 Sarah Crabtree, 2:30:52; 391 Alice Lewis, 02:35:19; 428 Zoe Fowler, 02:47:18; 429 Rachel Carter, 02:47:22; 435 Mathew Sutton, 02:50:42.