The Victory 5 has been a flagship event in the Southern race calendar for nearly 80 years. The 78th running of this classic was on Sunday 1 December 2024, with 631 finishers in 1:23:23.

The race winner was almost an hour ahead as this super-quick course delivered another seven men's times below 25 minutes and four women beat 30 minutes – although the remarkable race records of 22:43 (Rob Denmark, Basildon AC) and 25:35 (Nnenna Lynch, USA) remain intact.

City of Portsmouth AC has promoted the Victory 5 since 1946 and past winners read like a who's who of British endurance running alumni. Indeed, Rob Denmark's male record would put him sixth on the UK all-time five-mile list if he hadn't run two seconds faster at Ruislip in 1995 to hold fourth on the UK Rankings! Similarly, Nnenna Lynch's record is only beaten by three British athletes: Paula Radcliffe, Liz McColgan and Beth Potter.

The Victory 5 is based at Lakeside North Harbour, Portsmouth starting from Central Square. Lakeside North Harbour is a major business hub with 130 acres of attractive landscaped grounds, the home of more than 50 companies. The course is flat, fast, and is virtually traffic-free.

The top three men this year were Bahrainian athlete Abdinasir Mohamoud Elmi (Bournemouth AC, 24:21), Jonathan Cornish (Hercules Wimbledon AC, 24:36) and Matt Sharp (Ryde Harriers, 24:39) – the defending champion and also a winner here in 2016 and 2017.

The women's race was arguably the higher standard event with GB international Melissa Courtney-Bryant (Poole AC, 26:31) running the second-fastest time for five miles by a UK athlete this year. The runners-up were W35 Bryony Proctor (Kent AC, 29:06) and 2016 champion Emily Wicks (W35 Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, 29:14). Erin Williams (Winchester RC, 29:39) set the fourth fastest W40 masters time of the year in fourth overall.

The Victory 5 was the fifth race of 12 in the Hampshire Road Race League 2024-2025. Alexandra Sports is the headline sponsor and Sport Systems provides the chip timing results and entry system.

Results and previous event reports are at the runABC South race listing here.

Previous race photo courtesy Sport Systems