News
Weidlinger and Chapple victorious
For those who missed the live two hour broadcast on Ten and One HD on Sunday morning, it will be repeated on One HD on Tuesday (December 2) at 4:20pm AEST and Wednesday (December 3) at 6:00am.
In a surprise result, three-time Olympian and multiple Austrian record holder Guenther Weidlinger (AUT) has taken out the 2009 Great Australian Run ahead of an impressive field which included the past two Olympic marathon champions Samuel Wanjiru (KEN) and Stefano Baldini (ITA).
Braving the miserable Melbourne weather among 3000 pavement pounders, Weidlinger completed the 15km course in 43 minutes and 1 second, seventeen seconds ahead of Australian 10,000m record holder Collis Birmingham (43:19) and fellow Australian Martin Dent (44:00).
Emerging Australian distance runner Nikki Chapple returned from the Chiba Ekiden relay in Japan last week to dominate the women’s event in a course record of 50 minutes and 18 seconds. Multiple Australian record holder Benita Willis recovered from a slow mid-race to finish strongly in second position (51:15) and complete the Australian double. Dual Olympian Helen Clitheroe of Great Britain finished third in 51:17.
Evident from the outset Wanjiru, the man tipped to break Haile Gebrselassie’s world marathon record next year, wasn’t at his sharpest as he chose to sit in the pack rather than display his usual aggressive nature at the front.
Taking advantage of their slight edge, Weidlinger and Birmingham put their foot down, breaking up the main pack to three athletes, before losing Wanjiru at the 6.5km mark. Beginning the long stretch down St Kilda Road, Weidlinger found another gear to shake Birmingham just before the 10km mark and didn’t look back in the final 5km.
Rating the win as one of the best in his career, Weidlinger was more than happy to take advantage of a below-par Wanjiru.
“It’s probably one of my biggest victories because I have beaten two Olympic champions with Baldini and Wanjiru and I have beaten the European champion Chema (Jose Manuel) Martinez so it’s probably one of my biggest successes I have ever had,” Weidlinger said.
“He (Wanjiru) showed already from the start that’s somebody should lead with him and after 1.5km, I thought ‘I feel good and I am in the race and in the rhythm’ so I tried to push a bit and split up the lead group,” Weidlinger said.
“Collis took the lead on the hill and I realised that Wanjiru was not in his best shape so I tried to push the last 200m uphill and we lost him.
“I was really happy that we lost him, because you never know with a Kenyan behind you what will happen.”
Birmingham, whose second place was enough to hand him the national road running championships, was pleased with his result which saw him break his previous personal best time of 43:35 from last year’s event.
“I think I said in the press conference the other day the Sammy being still on the plane was an advantage to us and it looks like I was correct,” Birmingham said.
“It was one of my biggest runs to have those guys behind me. It’s a shame I couldn’t be a little bit closer to Guenther but he ran very well today and I am still happy with the way I went.”
Clearly affected by his late arrival due to the hospitalisation of his daughter in Kenya, Wanjiru knew he had more to offer the Australian public.
“Today was not my day,” Wanjiru said.
“I can come here to try again (next year), maybe to break the course record or world record for 15km.”
Dropping early favourite Willis, Chapple and 1996 10,000m Olympic champion Fernanda Ribeiro battled for the lead in the first 10km of the women’s event before Chapple blew away then away with 5km to go.
The 28-year-old was surprised with the win, but stopped short of declaring it her best race.
“I didn’t expect to win today so I am very happy,” Chapple said.
“I felt like it was quite an easy run so I don’t know if I would call it my best run. I like to feel like I have worked really hard.”
The Great Australian Run took place over a 15 kilometre route, starting and finishing in Albert Park and taking in Melbourne landmarks such as the Yarra River, Flinders Street Station, the Tan and St Kilda Road.
More than 3000 casual weekend joggers and walkers of all levels enjoyed this unique opportunity to run with the world’s best athletes whilst targeting their own personal goals and in many cases, raising money for their own favourite charity.
A number of sporting stars and celebrities also test themselves against the world’s best including Olympic gold medalist Cathy Freeman, world championship bronze medallist Craig Mottram, Triple M’s Mieke Buchan, comedian Adam Rozenbachs and V8 supercar drivers Rick Kelly and Paul Dumbrell.
It wasn’t all the adults who got to have all of the fun this weekend. Yesterday hundreds of kids and families were let loose around Albert Park in the IGA Junior and Family Great Australian Run.
Australia’s best wheelchair athletes also raced around Albert Park yesterday morning, multiple Paralympic medallist Richard Colman (22.30.6) narrowly defeating four-time Paralympian Richard Nicholson (2.31.80) by just over a second on the 10km course. Beijing silver medallist Madi de Rozario (28.22.5) took out the women’s race.