STEVE Way achieved third place in the world’s oldest ultra-distance race.
The Bournemouth AC veteran was the only European among the top-10 men in South Africa’s Comrades Marathon.
Seeking to improve on last year’s ninth position, Way was 11th with 20 miles to go.
But his pace judgement proved near perfect, averaging just under six minutes per mile.
Way chased down all but two of his rivals to complete the gruelling 56 miles from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in five hours, 35 minutes and 27 seconds.
He finished just eight minutes down on Bongmusa Mthembu, who completed a third Comrades victory in 5:26:34.
Meanwhile, Melissa Courtney has returned to racing following the triumph of her Commonwealth Games 1500m bronze medal.
The Poole AC star won the women’s Westminster Mile in 4:35.
She then embarked on a trip to the Netherlands and clocked 4:27.29 for fifth place in a track mile race at Hengelo before achieving a 15:16.51 5,000m win over Eilish McColgan and Steph Twell at Nijmegen.
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