Watch: Dillon Cassar, Roberta Schembri win SportMalta Charity Half Marathon

Dillon Cassar and Roberta Schembri are the winners of the SportMalta Charity Half Marathon race that was held on Sunday morning.

Cassar, the Malta national champion, was again in dominant form as he crossed the finish line in a time of 1:05.17 – well below his national record time of 1:06.45 but cannot be recognised as a new mark due to the route characteristics.

“I am very happy with my performance,” Cassar said.

“To run this time so early in the season is very positive, particulary vis-à-vis my next races in the coming months. My best time on this route was 1:08.45 so to lower it by more than three minutes without a proper preparation is really good.

“My main goal now is the Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria where I plan to race in the half marathon and hopefully I will be in much better shape.”

Cassar finished ahead of Luke Micallef, who clocked a time of 1:07.12 while Simon Spiteri placed third in 1:09.05.

In the women’s race, Roberta Schembri confirmed her strong form of late when topping her category in 1:17.35.

Lisa Marie Bezzina placed second in 1:19.01 while Irish runner Catherine Thornton was third in 1:22.42.

“I trained a lot for this race as it was my dream to finally win the Malta Half Marathon,” Schembri told the Times of Malta.

“I never thought that I could clock such a very fast time. My goal was to make in 1:19 so to do it much faster makes it even more satisfying.”