Belaynesh Olijira Triumphs at Great South Run

Kenya’s James Rungaru and Ethiopia’s Belaynesh Oljira produced exciting finishes to take victories over 10 miles on the roads at the Bupa Great South Run, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, in Portsmouth, United Kingdom on Sunday (26).

In cool, blustery conditions, the 21-year-old Rungaru, who represented Kenya in the junior race at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, settled into a lead pack that included his compatriots Joel Kimutai, winner of the Bupa Great Birmingham Run last weekend, Emmanuel Bett, who was second at that race and who won on the English south coast last year, and Uganda’s Abraham Kiplimo, the 2014 Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist.

In the women’s event, home favourite Gemma Steel, who has placed in the top three at every race that she’s contested in 2014, once again worked hard, only to see Oljira storm past her in the final metres.

Ethiopia’s 2013 IAAF World Championships 10000m bronze medallist recorded 52:40, a personal best for the distance, to the Brit’s 52:42, while Kenya’s Doris Changeywo, the runner up at the Bupa Great Birmingham Run, was third, in 54:18.

Read more at: IAAF.org