Tears for Jo after a close finish with African duo

Oct 6 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

THERE was initially disappointment and tears in defeat for Britain’s Jo Pavey on the sea front at South Shields yesterday.

But when she reflects on her third-place finish in the Bupa Great North Run there will also be plenty of cause for encouragement.

Pavey will decide in the next 12 months whether to go through with her plan to move up to the marathon distance, having so often been the nearly woman of British athletics over the shorter distances on the track.

The Exeter athlete, who picked up a a silver medal over 5,000 meters in the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and was fourth over 10,000 meters at the World Championships last year, is set to hand-pick a marathon – possibly London next year – to gauge whether she has the endurance for that most gruelling of disciplines.

The early indications are, however, after this extremely brave effort in the world’s most famous half-marathon, that the 35-year-old has the strength – both in body and mind – to pursue that aim.

Pavey will have four years to tailor her training and competitions in a bid to win a medal at the London Olympics in 2012 and, having seen her great domestic rival Paula Radcliffe make that transition with such extraordinary success nine years ago, she will be sorely tempted to take the risk.

Whether she will have anymore medal success in major events is impossible to predict, but she has shown on Tyneside that she has the heart and determination to give herself a fighting chance.

Pavey was eventually beaten into third place by Ethiopia’s three times world cross country champion and former world champion over 10,000 meters Gete Wami and exciting new Kenyan prospect Magdalene Mukunzi.

But she pushed the world-class African duo every step of the way.

It is difficult to remember a more exciting finish to a Great Nort Run as the three women swapped the lead as regularly as cyclists in the Tour de France, trying to chase down a break- away leader. Both Gami and Mukunzi had tried to crush Pavey’s spirit at different times over the course, small gaps occasionally forming as they accelerated, normally when the course moved uphill.

At times they looked as though there were going to move away – not least when Pavey slowed to take a drink with a little over three miles remaining – but each time Pavey came back at them and in the final mile she looked capable of beating them both, as Mukunzi’s four-second lead was wiped out along the seafront.

Wami, though, is one of the most experienced athletes on the international circuit and, having used Pavey to close the gap on the leader in the closing stages, she had conserved enough energy sat on her shoulder to sprint ahead over the final 200 meters with Mukunzi just about holding on to second place.

Pavey was undoubtedly annoyed by her failure to emulate the likes of Radcliffe and Sonia O’Sullivan, who have both won this race in the past, but her time of 68:53 was the eighth fastest in the world this year and wiped almost two minutes off her personal best. That is significant progress by anyone’s reckoning, and it is worth noting she was also considerably quicker than Britain’s Hayley Haining, who was sixth in a time of 70:53.

While Radcliffe – whose world record of 65.40 was set over this course five years ago – is still capable of operating at an even higher level, she remains susceptible to injuries and Pavey will be keen to see how she fares in her latest comeback race, next month’s New York marathon.

In the men’s race, a blistering run by Tsegay Kebede secured an Ethiopian double as the 21-year-old – a bronze medalist in the marathon in Beijing and one of the rising stars of men’s distance running – led almost from start to finish.

Breaking away after just four miles, the youngster surged ahead of the rest of the field, with his training partner Gebre Gebremariam and America’s Abdi Abdirahman unable to respond to his sharp turn of pace.

The youngster spent most of his run out on his own, but still managed to finish comfortably inside the hour mark and was almost a minute and a half ahead of his nearest rival.

Ominiously, when asked whether he was pleased with his time after the race, Kebede insisted he was disappointed – he had intended to run even quicker.

Britain’s men were, to put it bluntly, completely outclassed yet again. Ribo Ribas finished 10th, three and a half minutes behind the winner, with Jon Brown, the former British champion who defected to Canada two years ago, back in 11th place.

Morpeth Harrier Ian Hudspith, who has enjoyed a good domestic season, finished 17th overall in a time of 64:55, two minutes off his personal best.

With the possible exception of Mo Farah, who won the men’s Great North Mile on Newcastle’s Quayside on Saturday afternoon, it is difficult to see where any sort of medal hopeful is going to come from ahead of 2012.

No amount of lottery funding is going to bridge the chasm which presently exists between Britain and Africa’s best, but Pavey and Radcliffe have proven there is rather more cause for optimism for the women.

There was also a home winner in the women’s Great North Mile on Saturday, Lisa Dobriskey coming home ahead of Ukrainian Anna Mischenko and Slovenia’s Sonia Roman. Nineteen-year-old Stephanie Twell paid for her early brisk pace as she ended a magnificent season with fourth place. Last year’s 3000m winner Vivian Cheruiyot won over two miles again but was stretched to the limit by fellow Kenyan Linet Masai before pulling away from the world junior 10,000m record holder in the last 100m.

The pair of Kenyans stood head and shoulders above their opponents as Cheruiyot’s speed carried her to victory by a second in 9:40, with Maria Konovalova of Russia third in 10:02.

Eliud Kipchoge, the men’s two-mile champion three years ago, scored another convincing win ahead of compatriots Mike Kipyego and Levi Matebo.

Kipchoge, the 5000m silver medallist at the recent Olympics, posted a time of 8:42 with his fellow countrymen finishing in 8:44 and 8:45.

The addition of 100m road races to the programme saw Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Lauryn Williams become the inaugural champions with impressive wins in their respective races.

Aikines-Aryeetey, the former world junior 100m gold medallist, crossed the line in 10.25 ahead of fellow British athletes Ricky Fifton and Leevan Yearwood, who clocked 10.48 and 10.57.

Williams, the USA’s 2005 world 100m champion, was stretched by British number one Jeanette Kwakye before her fast finish saw her win by 0.09secs in 11.50, with Shauna Thompson clocking 11.69 for third spot.

MEN’S RACE: 1 T Kebede (Eth) 59mins 45secs, 2 G Gebremariam (Eth) 1:01:29, 3 A Abdirahman (USA) 1:01:33, 4 L Kibet (Ken) 1:01:34, 5 J-L Barrios (Mex) 1:01:48, 6 M Fagan (Irl) 1:02:20, 7 F Limo (Ken) 1:03:11, 8 J-M Martinez (Spa) 1:03:31, 9 R Silva (Por) 1:03:33, 10 R Ribas (Por) 1:03:35, 11 J Brown (Can) 1:03:36, 12 A Chaica (Por) 1:03:39, 13 D Robinson (Gbr) 1:04:11, 14 M Aish (Nzl) 1:04:20, 15 P Norwill (Aus) 1:04:29, 16 M O’Dowd (Gbr) 1:04:51, 17 I Hudspith (Gbr) 1:04:55, 18 A Kuzin (Ukr) 1:05:37, 19 C Birmingham (Aus) 1:05:46, 20 A Grice (Gbr) 1:05:46.

WOMEN’S RACE: 1 G Wami (Eth) 1hr 8mins 51secs, 2 M Mukunzi (Ken) 1:08:52, 3 J Pavey (Gbr) 1:08:53, 4 M Konovalova (Rus) 1:10:48, 5 M Komu (Ken) 1:10:49, 6 H Haining (Gbr) 1:10:53, 7 A Kalovics (Hun) 1:11:08, 8 A Rosa (Por) 1:11:25, 9 J Augusto (Por) 1:11:38, 10 W Kidane (Eth) 1:12:07, 11 B Johnson (Aus) 1:14:31, 12 R Robinson (Gbr) 1:14:53, 13 L Magnusson (Swe) 1:16:12, 14 H Yelling (Gbr) 1:16:57, 15 C Bryson (Gbr) 1:19:22, 16 J Knass (Gbr) 1:20:23, 17 M Holt (Gbr) 1:20:51, 18 H Lawrence (Gbr) 1:20:56, 19 E Damant (Gbr) 1:23:50, 20 S Lomas (Gbr) 1:25:44.

WHEELCHAIRS – MEN: 1 J Cassidy (Can) 44mins 10secs, 2 R Brunner (Ger) 45:03, 3 R Jiminez (Spa) 47:58, 4 M Telford (Gbr) 50:56, 5 J Gill (Gbr) 53:17, 6 M Bushall (Gbr) 1:03:12, 7 S Hoskins (Gbr) 1:11:44, 8 A Golightly (Gbr) 1:11:48.

WOMEN: 1 D Roy (Can) 51mins 1secs, 2 S Woods (Gbr) 51:19, 3 F Porcellato (Ita) 59:12.