DEVON'S Shaun Antell broke the tape first, but it was Cornwall athletes who doubled up to win the Peninsula Trophy in yesterday's Plymouth Hoe 10 road race.

Duchy's men and women scored highest finishing points in the county challenge which provides the race-within-a-race and adds that extra bit of spice for the city event which has become an annual fixture on the local athletics calendar.

The Hoe 10 had 483 finishers in a race which began and ended at Brickfields running track.

Running alongside the main event was the Quads Kids race which was restricted to the Brickfields track area and had four disciplines, long jump, vortex javelin throw, sprint and 600m run.

Antell, who runs for Bristol & West AC, clocked a personal best 52 minutes 33 seconds with fellow Devon runner Bideford's Mark Jenkin second, while third place was taken by East Cornwall Harrier's 18-year-old Dan Nash who also recorded a PB (52.59).

First female home was Emma Stepto, of Cornwall Athletics Club, who was 16th overall in a new PB of 57:51.

Female veteran Stepto's team-mate Naomi Tier (1:01.05) was the second female finisher in 31st place with Tamar Trotter Amy Wilkinson scoring points for Devon after finishing 35th overall. Her Trotters' club colleague Anne Luke was 43rd overall (fourth female) and took the points for Cornwall.

Devon's chances of winning the men's category in the Peninsula Challenge was not helped when Hoe 10 winner in 2009, Jim Cole felt unwell and had to pull up about five miles into the race.

This year a new course record had been guaranteed as the route had been 'tweaked' and race director Paul Ross, of the Armada Athletics Forum, felt his hunch there would be fast times in the 10-mile tester had been borne out.

He said: "We had amended the route slightly and I thought that it just might provide quicker times for the athletes this year.

"The weather was great and the runners took advantage of that and produced a very good race and test for themselves.

"Cornwall won both the men's and women's categories for the Peninsula Trophy, while those athletes and others taking part were still able to compete club against club as they've always done in the Hoe 10.

"The feedback I've received from the marshals has been positive in terms of traffic disruption. And so with that and the good times, it has been an extremely successful event."

Results

Men: 1 S Antell (Bristol) 52.33, 2 M Jenkin (Bideford) 52.48, 3 D Nash (East Cornwall Harriers) 52.59, 4 D Alsop (St Austell) 53.52, 5 J Denne (Exeter) 53.59, 6 C Snook (Cornwall AC) 54.20, 7 N Kindon (Cornwall AC) 54.36, 8 C Sabine (Tamar Trotters) 54.56, 9 J Thomas (Cornwall AC) 55.04, 10 D Rogers (Launceston) 56.35, 11 P Monaghan (Torbay) 56.41, 12 L Turner (Torbay) 56.46, 13 N Mytton (Plymouth Harriers) 14 M Shannon (Circenster) 15 D Tomlin (Teignbridge) 57.48

Women: 1 E Stepto (Cornwall AC) 57.51, 2 N Tier (Cornwall AC0 1:01.05, 3 A Wilkinson (Tamar Trotters) 1:01.34, 4 A Luke (Tamar Trotters) 1:02.16, 5 A Yetton (Plymouth Harriers) 1:02.35, 6 H Dyke (Poole) 1:03.29, 7 I Wykes (Truro) 1:04.05, 8 E Sutcliffe (Exmouth) 1:04.18; 9 A McEwing (Erme Valley) 1:04.30; 10 A Thorn (Erme Valley) 1:04.47