AUSTRALIAN runners dominated the top places in both the men's and women's events at yesterday's Hong Kong International Invitation Golden Mile races in Central. Australian Lawrence Dalton won the Bank of China Cup event in a time of four minutes and 15 seconds - fractionally beating British international Matthew De Freitas who was judged to have the same time. India's Bahardur Prasad, the Asian Championships 1,500-metre silver medallist was third, one second behind. Australian Anne Cross equalled the Nike Cup women's race record with her winning time of 4:41. Second was Zheng Yu-ying, of Guandong in 4:43, with Shirley Griffiths of Britain third in 4:52. Hong Kong's Maggie Chan Man-yee was fifth in 5:04. In the men's event, Dalton and compatriot John Walsh set the early pace around the Chater Road, Ice House Street, De Voeux Road Central and Murray Road circuit, but at the half-way mark Prasad threw down the gauntlet and took over the lead. However the Indian ace made his move a bit too soon as Dalton went ahead again going into Murray Road for the final time. Watson's Athletic Club's Roberto De Vido clocked 4:24 to finish eighth after easily out-kicking his local rival Yip Kai-tak. Yip was a disappointing 10th in 4:26 with De Vido winning the trip to Bendigo, Australia next month to compete in the Dragon Mile at Easter, as the fastest local runner. In the women's Nike Cup, Cross broke clear of the small pack of eight runners early on, together with Griffiths and Zheng. As Griffiths faded on the second lap, Cross held off a determined challenge from 21-year-old Zheng to win. Hong Kong hopeful, 18-year-old Maggie Chan Man-yee of Watson's Athletic Club battled to fifth place in 5:04 to earn her trip to the Dragon Mile as Hong Kong's fastest woman of the day. Watson's runners took both Hong Kong AAA men's and women's races, with Simon Parsons and Chiu Pik-kwan scoring comfortable wins respectively in 4:30 and 5:19. The schoolboys' and schoolgirls' Interport races saw Guangdong runners smash both records, with Lian Jian-guo impressive in winning the boys' race in a time of 4:19 - beating the record by seven seconds. Wang Xi-ling won the girls' race in neat five minutes, which beat international silver medallist Zheng Yu-ying's 1991 time by three seconds. In the men's veteran race, Malcolm Phillips of Police Athletic Club just beat record-holder Graham Smith of AVOHK by a whisker, with both runners credited with 4:44 - beating the record by seven seconds.
