Athletics: Super run by Dixon for Britain
Sunderland's Alyson Dixon finished 45th in the World Half Marathon Championships at Birmingham yesterday.
She clocked 75.19 to finish fourth counter for the Great Britain team who took seventh place.
Claire Hallissey led the way in 25th place, recording 1:12.14. She was followed by Michelle Ross-Cope 34th (1:13.50), Gemma Miles 44th (1:14.56), Dixon was next and Rebecca Robinson was the last home in 46th (1:16.21).
Dixon, who competes for Chester-le-Street and whose fastest time for the half marathon is 73.39, ran most of the way with Miles.
Paula Radcliffe, who missed the race through illness, saw her championship record time consigned to history. Mary Keitany, a 27-year-old Kenyan who took 2008 out to give birth to her first child, put on a magnificent display of solo running to take the title and record.
Radcliffe's championship mark of 1:06.47 had stood the test of time since 2001 when, in front of a home crowd in Bristol, she took the second of her three World Half Marathon gold medals. But Keitany holds the mark now, improving it by 11 seconds to 1:06.36, after breaking clear from her final challenger, Ethiopia's Aberu Kebede, in the sixth mile.
Eritrea's Zersenay Tadese followed suit in the men's race.
Tadese ran solo throughout the second half of the race after burning off his early challengers to win in 59:35. He erased the mark of 59:56 which he held jointly with Kenya's Shem Kororia.
Bernard Kiprop Kipyego, from Kenya, was second (59:59), while Dathan Ritzenhein, from the United States was third (60.00).
The leading Briton, Andrew Lemoncello, was 26th in a personal best 1:03.03. Lemoncello led home a British squad which placed 14th and was completed by Mark Miles 46th (1:04.21), Philip Wicks 60th (1:05.18), Andrew Jones 63rd (1:05.37) and Gareth Raven 75th (1:06.51).
Sunderland Harrier Gavin Massingham opened his winter season by running as a guest in the North Yorkshire and South Durham Harrier League at Croft yesterday. The club record holder for the 1500m and one mile outsprinted New Marske's Andy Wiles to win the 5.5 miles race by one second in 27.34.
Sunderland Strollershad three personal bestsin the Budapest Marathon.
The runners were:Michael Rumi3.36.58, Alyson West3.37.37 (pb), Phil Outram3.47.16 (pb), Jon Kisler 4.05.31 (pb), Peter Darke4.15.09.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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