TERRIFIC Toby Lambert blazed an impressive trail on his way to winning the Stubbington 10km road race for the second year running.

On a perfect day for running, with winter sunshine and barely any wind, the Alton athlete destroyed a highly-talented field with an awesome display of front-running.

Lambert led from the off and by half way was a good 45 seconds ahead of the chasing pack. The only question was whether the Alton Runner would duck under the magical 30 minute mark for 10km.

In the end, Lambert led home the record-breaking 1096-strong field in a formidable time of 30min 21sec.

With the late withdrawal of pre-race favourite Andy Vernon through a shin injury, one wonders whether the half-hour barrier would have been broken by either Lambert or the Stubbington-based European Junior Cross Country silver medallist.

As well as winning the race, part of the Hampshire Road Race League, Lambert was also crowned Hampshire 10km champion.

There was a terrific run from Southampton Running Club's Andy Morgan-Lee.

Last summer, after a fantastic first half of the year, he was rocked by a bad injury, but in only his second race back, the Ford worker engineered a second place of 31:25.

Morgan-Lee just out-muscled the Winchester & District AC coach, Nick Anderson, in a sprint finish to edge home by a couple of seconds.

The Belgrave Harrier Hassan Raidi, who has a sub-30 minute personal best, was fourth in 32:03, and James Baker, the Chichester runner who has been winning races at will this winter, was fifth in 32:19.

Poole's Louise Damen won the women's race a week after seeing her Hampshire Cross Country Championship hopes skid off course at Basingstoke when she took a wrong turn near the finish.

At Stubbington, thanks to a very late entry for a race, where she was hoping for a fast national qualifying time, Damen clocked 33:34, although the Hampshire title went to Winchester's Shona Crombie-Hicks, who was second in a time of 35:03.

With four runners placed in the top ten, Winchester won the ladies team title, while Stubbington captured the men's honours.

Pictures, report and comprehensive results in today's Daily Echo