Last year’s men’s and women’s champions successfully defended their Watford Half Marathon titles yesterday but there was a significant contrast in how the two races unfolded.

Paul Martelletti once again proved to be the class act of the men’s field and crossed the line more than five minutes ahead of his nearest rival, although the Victoria Park Harriers athlete’s time of 1.07.31 was almost 40 seconds slower than his winning run of 12 months ago.

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies’ Daniel Steel (1.12.51) was second, with Tring Running Club’s Luke Delderfield (1.13.59) came third.

While the men’s event resulted in a dominant victory, the women’s proved to be much closer as Victoria Knight (1.18.24) retained her title with a five-second margin of success over Hayley Munn (1.18.29).

Winchester and District athlete Munn had gone into the event as favourite because she had run faster over the distance, but the defending champion from Cambridge and Coleridge had the experience of racing the course last year to call upon.

Professional triathlete Lucy Charles was third home in the women’s event in 1.20.59.

More than 1860 competitors completed the event, which started and finished in Cassiobury Park.