Weidlinger upstages Wanjiru in Melbourne

Melbourne, AustraliaThe W’s dominated the lead-up to the Great Australian Run. Sammy Wanjiru, Olympic marathon champion, World Marathon Majors champion, World record holder in the Half Marathon and Benita Willis, Australia’s only World Cross Country champion, hogged the publicity.

Surprisingly, a third ‘W’ came through on the day, Austria’s Gunther Weidlinger upstaging Wanjiru, Australia’s Collis Birmingham and the likes of Athens Olympic 2004 marathon champion Stefano Baldini and Spain’s former European 10,000 metres champion Jose Manuel Martinez to take the men’s race win.

Even more of a surprise, on reputation, if not form, was Nikki Chapple’s victory over Willis in the women’s race. Along with Birmingham, who finished second to Weidlinger, she became the Australian road champion.

For the second weekend in a row, Melbourne was hit by late-spring rain, the runners splashing their way through puddles to the finish on the Albert Park F1 Grand Prix circuit. Fortunately, the downpour was neither as heavy nor as prolonged as the one which disrupted the finish of the men’s 50km Race Walk championship a week earlier.

MEN

Mere rain could not have wiped the smile off Weidlinger’s face.  A man of records, the versatile Austrian holds every national record from the 1500 metres to the marathon, he is not accustomed to beating Olympic marathon champions, much less two of them at a time.

“It’s probably one of my biggest victories because I have beaten two Olympic champions and I have beaten the European champion,” Weidlinger said.

“(Wanjiru) showed already from the start that somebody should lead with him and after 1.5km I thought ‘I feel good and I am in the race and in the rhythm’, so I tried to push a bit and split up the lead group.”

The win came just five weeks after Weidlinger’s national marathon record in Frankfurt and he revealed he psyched himself into believing he had an edge over Birmingham, with whom he has been training at Falls Creek on the Victorian High Plains.

 “We were doing 1km reps at Falls Creek last week,” Weidlinger said. “Birmingham stopped after eight, I did two more. So I told myself I was two better than him. It didn’t mean anything, of course, but it can give you some confidence, it doesn’t matter.”

Weidlinger sprinted to the line in 43:01, 21 seconds slower than Haile Gebrselassie last year. Birmingham followed 18 seconds behind with a national title and a personal best: Martin Dent, Australia’s leading finisher in the world championships marathon, also passed Wanjiru for third.

Wanjiru arrived less than 36 hours before the race as his daughter, Allie, fell ill in Kenya. Today was not my day,” he said.
“I can come here to try again (next year), maybe to break the course record or World record for 15km” (which he shares at 41:29 with Felix Limo and Deriba Merga).

WOMEN

After the late withdrawal of Irina Mikitenko (illness) and Deena Kastor (family reasons), it was widely assumed the women’s Great Australian Run would be a further winning step along Benita Willis’s rehabilitation. The 2004 World Cross Country champion has struggled through injuries, the death of her father, and a marriage break-up in the past 18 months.

This sentiment ignored the recent form of Chapple, a 28-year-old who showed immense promise as a junior before losing her way. Two months ago, both she and Willis ran the Great North Run, with Chapple fourth in 70:03 and Willis almost two minutes back in 71:57.

The women’s field set off 15 minutes before the men and Chapple, Willis and 1996 Olympic 10,000 metres champion Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal led. Chapple took control in the middle stages around Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens.

Chapple won in 50:18, rating it her biggest win (she thought the Great North Run a better performance). Willis, an isolated fourth at 10k, surged back over the final stages to take second in 51:15, ahead of Britain’s Helen Clitheroe (51:17) and Ribeiro (51:41).

A fourth Olympic champion took part, Great Australian Run ambassador Cathy Freeman going around the course with the masses. So, too, did Australian 5000 metres record holder Craig Mottram and triple Olympic marathoner Lee Troop.

Len Johnson for the IAAF