6 October 2008

Olympians Lisa Dobriskey (Ashford AC) and Mo Farah (Newham & Essex Beagles) secured a GB double win in the BUPA Great North Mile on Saturday.

Dobriskey produced a storming finish to retain her title for the second year running in Newcastle, crossing the line in 4:38, just two weeks after winning the New York Mile.

Farah took the men’s title in 4:12 ahead of Ireland’s Dave Campbell and Brimin Kipruto of Kenya.

Jo Pavey (Exeter Harriers) narrowly missed out on being the first British athlete to win the BUPA Great North Run for five years. After a strong performance and nail biting finish Pavey lost out to Africans Gete Wami and Magdalene Mukunzi as they took the lead in the final mile. Her time of 1:08.53 was a personal best and fourth fastest by a British woman. Hayley Haining (Kilbarchan) who is preparing for November’s New York marathon showed she was in top form clocking 1.10.53 – a new personal best.

Dan Robinson (Stroud AC) was top GB man with 64.11 finishing 13th, he was followed in by Matt O Dowd (Swindon) and Ian Hudspith (Morpeth) in 64.51 and 64.55 respectively.

Beijing silver medallist Shelly Woods (unattached) came second in the women’s Great North Run wheelchair race on Thursday 5^th October, just losing out on retaining her two year long title. Canada’s Diane Roy pipped her to the line by a single second to win the half-marathon race in a time of 51:18.

Woods, who won in 2005 and 2007, was gracious in defeat, saying that Roy "was the better woman on the day".

Paralympic silver medallist Mickey Bushell (Birchfield Harriers) showed incredible promise finishing sixth in the GEZE Tyne Tunnel 2K on Thursday 5^th October. The 18 year old set a personal best time of 5min 32.3sec for the 2km course, hitting 41mph on the downhill section.