MONROSS Trailblazer Rob Nicholls certainly followed in the footsteps of legends on Sunday, as he ran the historic Athens Authentic Marathon on the route first covered by a foot soldier bringing news of victory in battle more than 2,500 years ago.

The top class event tested runners from across the globe with its iconic, punishing climb from the plains of Marathon all the way to the historic Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.

Rob took on the legendary 26.2-mile test of endurance in a world class field and put in a superb performance, crossing the line in 2 hours 49 minutes 57 seconds to finish 155th overall in the 25,000 strong race.

His club posted: “To run a sub-2:50 on a course boasting over 300 metres of climbing is phenomenal. Incredible work, Rob.”

Among all the Olympic sport events, the Marathon Race stands out, as it was born by a true historic and heroic event when a Greek soldier ran to ancient Athens from the scene of the Marathon Battle in 490BC with news of victory over the Persians, reputedly dying of exhaustion after delivering the news.

Helped by a favourable tailwind, the men's course record of 2:10:34, set by Edwin Kiptoo in 2023, was broken by Ethiopia's Manazot Taferi, who clocked 2:10:03.

In the women's event, the race record was broken by fellow Ethiopian Yatane Dusha, who crossed the finish line in 2:30:04 over a minute ahead of the 2010 record set by Lithuania's Rasa Drazdauskaite.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Trailblazers joined a 225-strong field at Croft Ambrey in the second Hereford and Borders Winter XC League race.

The hosts’ Sam Juson stormed to victory by more than two minutes in 31.59, while fastest woman in 40th was Builth Wells’ Ffion Price in 42.59.

Fastest Trailblazer was Gavin Jones in 13th, in a time of 38:54, followed by Kieron Brown in 19th in 39:56.

Rob Potter was 59th in 46:01, followed by Kate Shuttlewood in 82nd in 48:41, who was second over-45 woman.

Andrew Stephens was close behind in 92nd crossing in 49:27, while Laura Lelievre 17 seconds back in 98th was also second over-35 woman.

Also at the weekend, fellow Trailblazer Nick Cook hopped over the pond to Ireland to take on the Westport Sea to Summit event.

The event consisted of five stages in total, including 8km of running, 19km cycling and a 4km mountain run.

And Nick put in a cracking performance finishing 174th out of just under 2,000 participants.

Meanwhile, 114 runners, joggers and walkers turned out for Ross-on-Wye’s 5k weekly free parkrun on Saturday.

First home was Tim Elvidge in 18.38, closely followed by over-55 Colin Reeke just 12 seconds back.

Third home was Will Mynott in 19.50, with David Price fourth fastest in 21.53 and Leo Lockwood fifth in 22.05.

First woman home was Katherine Edwards in 10th in 22.24.