Adams conquers strains for win

OLYMPIC Games runner Liam Adams has proved to be a familiar face on the podium at Tasmania’s top road races, and yesterday the 31-year-old laid claim to his fourth Run the Bridge crown.

The win caps off a stellar couple of months for Adams, after he took out the half-marathon event at the Cadbury Marathon in January.

Adams, an apprentice electrician from Victoria, said despite the win at yesterday’s race he felt his performance was hampered by some mental distractions.

“When you’re an apprentice working 45 hours on average per week, and running 15 hours weekly, and also dealing with other external factors it distracts you from your running,” Adams said.

“It affects your sleep and your running quality. It becomes quite stressful, and you don’t recover quite as well as you possibly could.

“I’m a little bit annoyed about that but happy to get a good result too.”

Adams’s win in a time of 29min 15sec was just enough to see off Tasmania’s Dejen Gebreselassie (29:22).

It’s the second close race the pair have had, after Adams narrowly out-ran Gebreselassie to win Sydney’s City2Sea race in November.

“Dejen had a very strong run which was good to see,” Adams said. “He’s tracking along well for the World Half Marathon Championships in Spain later in the year. “He had a tremendous run.” Adams said he is hoping to cut out the external factors affecting his running before the Commonwealth Games.

“I try to, and I would love to [cut out the external pressures], but it’s just playing on my mind at the moment,” Adams said.

“But I’m still getting some good runs in, and I’ve hit some good sessions recently.

“It shows that I’m tracking along well, especially with yesterday’s result.”