RICHARD Peters made it two wins out of two as he successfully retained his Clevedon 4 miles road title on Boxing Day.
The 25-year-old Bristol & West AC international middle distance runner (pictured left) has now won the ever popular event four of the past five years and on Saturday dominated the race from gun to tape.
Peters, who graduated from Boston University in the summer and is now working in Birmingham, was having his first open race for more than six months.
But as coach Mike Down said no-one watching would have guessed it as he underlined his class by defying the near gale-force wind to lead all the way and beat his club-mate and former winner Devon champion Tom Merson by more than 20 seconds in 19:38
“My achilles tendon problem has been troubling me since the Commonwealth Games more than a year ago, and with a career to think about and develop, my running has been on the back-burner for a while,” said Peters.
“But now I am settled back in the UK, I am getting fit again and intend to race on the track indoors in the new year.”
Peters and Merson (pictured right) pulled well clear of the rest of the 900-strong field on the long climb up Holly Lane, and it was left to newly-crowned Avon cross-country champion Josh Davis of North Somerset AC to prevent a Bristol and West clean sweep by holding off the fast-finishing Luke Evans to take third place.
Another former winner and local legend Clevedon-born international James Thie chased Evans home in fifth place.