With the aim of breaking Samuel Goldstein’s 2016 mark of 16 minutes and 50 seconds, Struiken took the lead from the start and pressed the pace. When he completed his last stride, he had shattered Goldstein’s mark, when he stopped the clock at 16:29.8.

“Today’s race was basically an all-out effort to finally get that 2016 course record off the books, when some visitor came and showed us how to run and I think I did a quite a good effort,” a satisfied Struiken told Island Sun Sports. “I got under by about 20 seconds so, I’m very, very happy. It was a hard race. The hill in Carrot Bay is always very difficult, but I gave it my all and the result is there.”

Struiken who’s skipping the weekend KPMG Tortola Torture, said it’s good to have the record in the hands of a BVI resident

Lindsay, sixth overall, chopped her own year-old mark of 20:20, to 20:01.2, said it was a good run for her.

“Took it steady-ish on the way out as I’m not a fan of these big hills and I wasn’t sure I was going to be ready for them, so I just tried to pace myself for the hills and I felt good on the way back,” Lindsay explained. “I was trying to pick it up but those boys were gone so I was on my own, but I enjoyed it and it was a big improvement. I would have liked to keep pace with Dereck (Rawlins) and Reuben (Stoby), but they had a really good run today, but I was keeping them in my sights.”

Linday said she has been feeling good about the series and hopefully, she’ll build up towards faster times towards the end of the series.

Race Director Kay Reddy, told Island Sun that the race in Carrot Bay is her favorite and the north shore of Tortola, is probably one of the most beautiful races in the world.

“If you’re going to run a 5K, this is the place in the world to run a 5K and today was even better, not only that it is flat, it was fast,” she noted. “In the front for the men, Clifton Struiken set a new course record of 16:29 in the ladies, Katrina absolutely smashed the ladies course record in 20:01. As for the turnout, we had to adhere to the Ministry of Health guidelines and we had to cap the race at 70, so we had 68 finishers. It was very competitive as well as in the walking division, so just all in all, things couldn’t have been better.”

Final results. Men: 1. Clif Struiken, 16 minutes29.8 seconds. (New Record. Old Record, Samuel Goldstein, 16:50.2, 2016). 2. Jermaine Rickets, 17:58.2. 3. Julius Farley, 18:31.3. 4. Derek Rawlings, 18:41.1. 5. Reuben Stoby, 19:27.8. 6. Iain Tucker, 20:43.0. 7. Sergio Dantas, 21:33.2. 8. 21:46.0. 9. Lennon Dabreo, 21:50.1. 10. Toni Bonzon, 22:05.0. 11. Meshach Stoby, 22:43.6. 12. Claudius Rymer, 22:48.3. 13. Greg O’Keefe-Davis, 23:18.1. 14. Adrian Dale, 23:44.8. 15. Aaron Gardner, 24:00.0. 16. Zebalon McLean, 25:10.8. 17. Rupert Johnson, 25:16.4. 18. John Ayres, 25:23.2. 19. Kazim Thomas, 25:50.1. 20. Nicholas Clark, 26:55.1.Women: 1. Katrina “Kat” Lindsay, 20 minutes 01.2 seconds. (New Record. Old Record, Katrina “Kat” Lindsay, 2020, 20:20) 2. Lia Claxton, 22:33.4. 3. Cate Armstrong, 23:50.1. 4. Debbie Bell, 25:34.0. 5. Ksenia Shvalova, 25:40.8. 6. Vicki Francis, 25:55.0. 7. Sarah Latham, 26:05.0. 8. Saungie Liburd, 26:53.1. 9. Haley White, 27:04.6. 10. Kay Reddy, 27:12.4. 11. Rosmond Johnson, 27:14.7. 12. Tuneisha Johnson, 27:27.6. 13. Nicole Parker, 28:13.8. 14. Elizabeth Buratti, 29:57.2 15. Yegane Guley, 30:56.5. 16. Kate Carey, 31:19.7. 17. Clare Chiltern, 32:56.0. 18. Olga Danilova, 33:12.3. 19. Rebecca Clark, 33:14.6. 20. Kate Chleriza Robledo, 33:39.3.