South Africa’s Hendrick Ramaala and Ethiopia’s Berhane Adere won the Great North Run in Newcastle, England on Sunday. With about 50,000 participants, it’s one of the biggest road races in the world. The traditionally high-class half marathon in England’s northeast didn’t produce winning times as fast as in recent years, but hundreds of thousands of spectators experienced thrilling races for victory.
The race was a perfect dress rehearsal for Ramaala, who will run the New York City Marathon on November 5. He won for the third time in Newcastle, clocking 61:03 minutes. “I wanted to run under 61 minutes, and I made a surge at about 10 kilometer, but I could not get rid of the other runners,” Ramaala said. “Then I decided to save my energy for the finish.” The 34-year-old, who was scarcely beaten by Paul Tergat at last year’s New York Marathon, split the leading group by increasing the pace at 10K, but he couldn’t get rid of last year’s winner Dejene Berhanu (Ethiopia) and the surprisingly strong Dathan Ritzenhein (USA).
With about three kilometers to go, Ramaala started the next crucial attempt, and finally got away from his rivals. Berhanu finished second in 61:23, just two seconds ahead of Ritzenhein, who made a strong half marathon debut on the hilly course. Marathon world champion of 2003 and 2005, Jaouad Gharib (Morocco), finished fourth in 61:41, one second ahead of Olympic marathon champion Stefano Baldini (Italy). Ritzenhein and Baldini will race Ramaala again in New York.As Baldini the Kenyan trains for the New York Marathon.
The women’s race soon became a fight of four runners: Adere, Susan Chepkemei (Kenya), Benita Johnson (Australia) and debutante Jo Pavey (England). Pavey ran bravely, and only lost contact with one mile to go. By the finish, Adere’s time of 70:01 put her well ahead of Johnson (70:16). The Australian will run the Chicago Marathon in three weeks. “I wanted to get away from the others earlier, but I couldn’t do it,” said Adere. Chepkemei was third in 70:21, and Pavey finished fourth in 70:42.
The day before the half marathon, organizers put on a mile race. Mo Farah (Great Britain) won in a photo finish; he clocked 4:05.5 minutes ahead of Ivan Heshko (Ukraine), who was given the same time. Third was Kenyan Alexander Kipchirchir (4:05.8). In the women’s race, Rebecca Lyne (Great Britain) ran 4:40.3.
In a 3K road race also staged at Newcastle, Craig Mottram (Australia) won in 7:41.7, well ahead of Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya/7:43.1). Fastest woman was Meseret Defar (Ethiopia) with 8:46.9. Both winning times marked new world records, but the 3K road distance is not an event contested often. So these results are not really that significant and much slower than the track world records.
