A record numbers of people from across the British Isles showed that the Isle of Man’s Easter Festival of Running is becoming one of the major events for Britain’s top young athletes.
The event has been growing in popularity for years, but this year saw an exceptional increase in the number of competitors travelling to take part in three very different contests across the island.
The festival has received growing support from universities over the last decade, with some of Britain’s top young athletes competing in the three events. Universities involved were: Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield, St Andrews and University College London (taking part for the first time).
All previous entry records were broken at this year’s event with a massive total of 1351 competitors crossing the finishing line in the three events over the weekend. There were 780 men and 571 women finishers, easily beating last year’s record figure of 1212.
The overall men’s title was won by Arlo Ludewick (Manchester University Alehouse) and the overall women’s title went to Rebecca Flaherty (Oxford University).
Port Erin (Dave Kneen)
Keeping with tradition, the festival began with the Port Erin 10km road race, sponsored by IQ-EQ on a wet Good Friday evening. The race attracted a massive field of 573 athletes, comfortably beating last year’s record of 490.
Rebecca Flaherty’s time of 35:33 was the fastest on the course by an under-20 woman, beating the time of 35:56 by Sarah Inglis from 2010. Harry Stennett’s time of 35:33 was the fifth fastest by an U17 runner on the course.
The Peel Hill Races, sponsored by Full Factory Winnerswear, attracted 200 in the men’s race. Arlo Ludewick of Manchester Uni Alehouse won, finishing just 36 seconds outside the course record, ahead of Angus Wright (Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds) and Ritchie Gardiner (Leeds University DOSS AC). Chris Killey (Manx Harriers) was the leading local finisher in 46th place.
The women’s race was won by Lucy Storey (Durham University), 20 seconds ahead of Pippa Carcas (Leeds University DOSS AC) and Rebecca Flaherty (Oxford University). In 11th place was the leading under-17 athlete Graihagh Turner of Rotherham Harriers. The leading local was Laura Dickinson (Manx Harriers) in 36th place.
Arlo Ludewick and Rebecca Flaherty (Callum Staley)
The top three finishers in both the men’s and women’s races received special commemorative hats, and cheques for £250, £150 and £100 respectively from the event’s fantastically generous sponsor Martin Bullock of Full Factory Winnerswear. This was in addition to the Festival’s own prize fund.
The Sunday morning 5km road race on Douglas promenade, sponsored by The Outback, saw decent weather for the first time over the weekend, and had a record field of 195 for the women’s race won by Rebecca Flaherty to ensure the overall title for the weekend. Another Oxford University runner Rhiannon Paton was runner up, and Ceri Griffiths (Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds) third.
The men’s race had another record field – 246 – won by Jeremy Dempsey (Cambridge) ahead of Arlo Ludewick and Ritchie Gardiner (Leeds). The leading local finisher Lucas Stennett (Northern AC) who is an under-20 athlete.
Putting on an event of this size and nature is a big undertaking, and grateful thanks go to everyone involved in any capacity, and a special thanks is due to the three main sponsors of the 2025 Festival – IQ-EQ, Full Factory Winnerswear and The Outback.
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