Sir Mo wins the Great North Run
With more than 43,000 runners, the Great North Run is the world’s biggest half marathon. This year the 13.1-mile event took place on 10 September. It started in Newcastle and finished in the seaside town of South Shields. The race has been run every year since 1981. This year Great Britain’s most famous athlete, Mo Farah, won the elite men’s race for the fourth year in a row. “It was really, really tough. With four miles to go I was hanging on,” he said. He took one hour and six seconds and only finished six seconds ahead of New Zealand’s Jake Robertson.
The women’s elite title was won by Mary Keitany from Kenya. She finished in one hour, five minutes and 59 seconds. She beat fellow Kenyans including Magdalyne Masai. At the finish line, Masai’s boyfriend, Jake Robertson, asked her to marry him, and a delighted Masai said yes, to cheers from the watching crowd.
British athlete Simon Lawson finished first in the men’s wheelchair race, and the day before, thousands of young runners competed in the junior and mini races in Newcastle.