This event held annually late February/early March dates back to the late 1970’s and has seen many international and world class athletes testing themselves over the NSC perimeter raceway which is known to be a fast circuit.
Olympic, World and Commonwealth gold, silver and bronze medalists have cut their teeth at this meeting which has served as a great early season opener to test performance. In recent years it has proved very popular with the younger generation and has played host on a number of occasions to the Nihill Shield (named after Paul Nihill, the first Manx Open event winner) which is a match between Ireland and England youth walkers where the best of the younger athletes have been selected to compete for their country.
Alongside the race walking programme which caters for both senior and junior athletes there is a distance road run which has varied between 50km, 40 miles, half marathon and 10km, though in recent history 10km has been the distance which seems to have gained most support from competitors.
In 2019 the open meeting was renamed in honour of our club-mate and athletics stalwart Murray Lambden. Murray always had the open date in his diary, supported us in the online publicity and was never far away with his camera, capturing some amazing performances over the years in both the walks and the run.
For further information regarding this event please contact Bridget Kaneen.