News20 Sep 2009


Great North Run honours for Lel and Augusto

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Jessica Augusto of Portugal on her way to victory at the 2009 Great North Run (© Mark Shearman)

Newcastle, UKTriple London marathon winner and this year´s Lisbon Half Marathon champion, Martin Lel of Kenya, added a second Great North Run title to his trophies with the second fastest time in the race’s history of 59:32, smashing his best time for the half marathon distance by 22sec, the ideal warm up for the New York marathon which he’ll contest this autumn.

The Great North Run is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.

The Relative unknown Kiplimo Kimutai of Kenya was second with former double World marathon champion, Jaouad Gharib of Morrocco, who suffered cramp in the final stages, in third.

“I’m delighted to win here,” said Lel. “The conditions were perfect. I wasn´t surprised by Kimutai's performance but I didn´t worry about him either. Now I have the potential to win more big races.”

There was a surprise win for Portugal’s Jessica Augusto in the women’s race as she ran away from more illustrious rivals to secure an easy win in a personal best 69:08. Former World Half Marathon champion, Berhane Adere of Ethiopia, finished a distant second with Ana Dulce Felix making it a good day for Portugal in third.

“I was planning to go with the pace,” said Augusto who was ninth in 2008 in her previous PB of 71:38. “But at 5km I was on my own and I just kept going. I am very happy because I only restarted training three weeks ago after competing at the World championships. It´s the first time I've been in England when the weather has been good.”

MEN's RACE

There was a steady start to the men’s race as a large group went through the first mile in 4:37 as opposed to some years when it is ticked off in around 4:20

The cautious approach continued as a small group of five covered the first four miles in 18:18 with Martin Fagan of Ireland the only European to respond to the African challenge as World Cross Country champion Gebr Egziabher Gebremariam was tracked by Lel, Gharib and 60:58 performer (New Delhi 2008) Kimutai.

At 30mins of running it was down to a group of four  - Lel, Gharib, Kimutai, Gebremariam - who had opened up a 30 metre gap as Fagan dropped off the back unable to respond to the injection of pace.

Lel and Kimutai continued to push the pace passing 10m in 45:21 with Gharib playing his usual waiting game in third but clearly in some discomfort. A distant fourth at this stage was Gebremariam.

Despite constantly falling behind the leading Kenyans by some five metres, Gharib kept fighting back and with a mile to go the Morroccan closed the gap and suddenly looked threatening.

But the Kenyans surged once again and finally broke the Moroccan. As they passed 20km in 56:38 Gharib suddenly stopped, appearing to suffer cramp in his left leg.

Meantime Lel, sensing victory, started his sprint finish and immediately got away from Kimutai who had to settle for second.

Lel breasted the tape in 59:32, Kimutai also beating the hour in second for a big personal best by over a minute with a hampered Gharib just four seconds outside the 60min benchmark.

WOMEN's RACE

Under clear skies and a perfect 12 degrees, the elite women set off at a jog passing the first mile in 5min40sec with 2001 World marathon champion, Lidia Simon of Romania, in the lead.

After 15min of running the first to drop off the pace was the former Marathon world record holder, Tegla Loroupe, 36, while up front Simon had upped pace as they went through 2miles in 10:53.

After 20mins of running Portugal´s 2008 European cross country silver medallist, Portugal´s Jessica Augusto took over and opened up a 5m lead, crossing the 4 mile marker in 21:25.

At this stage the conservative pace continued, the only exception coming from Augusto who obviously decided enough was enough and set out to open up a 100M gap by 5 miles which the Portuguese passed in 26:48. A distant second was Australia´s Nikki Chapple with the main group containing Boston winner Selina Kosgei of Kenya and Adere a further 30m down.

The chasing group appeared not to notice the danger and Augusto stretched her lead even further passing through the sixth and seventh mile in a respectable 5min and 5:02 for a 7mile time of 36:50.

At nine miles in 47:15 Augusto enjoyed a huge lead of 50sec with a chasing group of Adere, Kosgei, Weknesh Kidane and a revitalised Chapple.

At the 10 mile mark (52:27) Adere broke away from the chasing group and set about eating into the Portuguese lead but it was too late. Dulce Felix slotted into third with Kosgei trailing.

Onto the sea front and with the line ahead Augusto was away and clear, waving to the crowd and making it look like a training run. Her win is the first Portuguese victory in this race since the great Rosa Mota took the title in 1990.

Michael Butcher for the IAAF

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