Thousands take in capital views on ten-mile run
The Great Edinburgh Run is billed as the most scenic ten-mile event in Europe, and yesterday a 4,000-strong field took in city’s landmarks in sunshine including the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle and Greyfriar’s Bobby
Mary Keitany produced the second-fastest time by a female in history to win the London Marathon, completing a Kenyan double after Daniel Wanjiru took the men’s title.
The 35-year-old mother of two briefly challenged Paula Radcliffe’s overall world record but settled for the quickest time in a womenonly race of 2:17:01 with Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba 55 seconds behind. “We’d planned to run 2:18 so it was a great day for me to run so fast,” said Keitany who won the event for the third time. “I thought I would run 2:17:59 or something, so to run 2:17:01 is amazing.”
Wanjiru, 21, looked set for a dominant victory after pulling clear after halfway but was reined in by double Olympic gold medallist Kenesisa Bekele. But he held off the Ethiopian to win in 2:05:48.
With the race also serving as the British trials for August’s world championships in London, Deeside’s Robbie Simpsondeliveredatimelypersonal best of 2:15:01 to finish 15th. The mountain running international, 25, was overtaken by Welsh debutant Josh Griffith late on in the race to be the first Brit home but is set to join Callum Hawkins when the team is announced this week.
“I don’t think a lot of people expected me to make the team, and maybe I didn’t think I could but I knew if I ran a good tactical race, I would have a chance,” said Simpson, who has based himself in Germany to prepare.
“I ran a lot of the time with Josh – I’ve actually known him for a while from mountain running. He went past me in the last few miles and I was thinking, ‘woah, he’s flying’. I couldn’t quite hold on to him but I’m happy to be the second Briton home.”
Alyson Dixon was the first UK female finisher in 14th with Charlotte Purdue and Tracy Barlow just behind, with all three inside the world standard. Susan Partridge, in possibly her last major race, was the leading Scot in 21st in 2.37.51.
Derek Rae slashed his previous best in the adjoining IPC world marathon championships, the 31-year-old from Fife running 3:33:24 to claim bronze in the T45/46 race. After dropping out at Rio 2016 due to the heat, he has set his sights on a second Paralympic shot. “Hopefully, I’ll have Tokyo,” he said.
Scot Erin Wallace won the Under-17 mini-marathon. l Dan and Hillory Wallis took the Great Edinburgh Run titles for the second year in a row as the husband and wife duo made a victorious return to the event.
New Zealander Wallis shook off a dogged challenge by Inverclyde’s Andrew Douglas to win in 50 minutes and 23 seconds. “It was a lot harder than I wanted it to be,” he said. His wife was a comfortable winner in the women’s race in 63:42. “It doesn’t matter how fit you are,” she declared. “That course is going to hurt.”