Close call as Skinner and Tamirat take 2012 runbritain Grand Prix victories

Paul Martelletti and Amy Whitehead took the UK Half Marathon Championship honours with their respective victories in the Perkins Great Eastern Run in Peterborough on Sunday (14 October), the fifth and final race of the 2012 runbritain Grand Prix, but the overall Grand Prix titles went to Mike Skinner and Getenesh Tamirat who took home £3000 each for their efforts across the Series.

Martelletti, who has had an impressive summer on the roads, was a late entrant into the runbritain Grand Prix due to gaining UK citizenship in late September and didn’t have the opportunity to make an impact on the final standings, but he officially finished first Brit on this occasion, clocking 65:46 in third overall. The race was won by Luka Rotich in 62:24 from Benson Olenakeri in second (63:01).

Mike Skinner, who went into the race at the top of the Grand Prix standings, did enough to maintain that position when finishing second (fourth overall) in 67:02 to conclude the runbritain Grand Prix Series with 1092 points from four events.

Martin Williams, second going into the final event, held onto that position by finishing one place behind Skinner in 68.30. He ended the Series with 969 points ahead of Hugh Torry in third with 879 points, with both athletes completing four events across the five-race programme.

Arguably the real excitement came in the women’s event where the final Grand Prix result went right down to the wire.

As part of the race preview it was noted that Getenesh Tamirat, currently in third place in the Series at that point with 745 points from three events (most recently courtesy of her second-placed-Brit finish in the Bristol Half Marathon), could, on paper, still move into pole position following Peterborough, and, that was exactly what happened.

Amy Whitehead took the UK Half Marathon title with her first-placed-Brit finish in 73:08 (third overall), while long-term Grand Prix leader Emily Wicks clocked 75:09 for second Brit and Tamirat 75:28 for third.

With Wicks having already recorded four performances prior to the last race in the series, and an athlete’s four best performances counting towards their final total, the outcome was always a possibility with Tamirat due to benefit most from the Peterborough race after only three outings prior to that point, and in th end, it went down to the wire with only one point separating Tamirat (993) from Wicks (992) at the finish.

Third place in the runbritain Grand Prix went to Andrea Whitcombe who finished one place behind Tamirat on the day (75:44) and concluded her Series with 986 points.

The overall winner in Peterborough was Emily Biwott in 72:29, the second quickest time ever recorded in Peterborough in the women’s race.

Men’s top ten (full standings available through the following link)

1. Mike Skinner (1092)

2. Martin Williams (969)

3. High Torry (879)

4. Dave Morgan (864)

5. Jeff Prest (607)

6. Dewi Griffiths (494)

7. Shaun Dixon (492)

8. Anthony Ford (490)

9. Ben Livesey (488)

10. Jon Pepper (482)

Women’s top ten (full standings available through the following link)

1. Getenesh Tamirat (993)

2. Emily Wicks (992)

3. Andrea Whitcombe (986)

4. Annabel Granger (947)

5. Vicky Callaway (932)

6. Rachel Colloff (762)

7. Emma D’Alton (730)

8. Nikki Stanley (602)

9. Juliet Doyle (492)

10. Sarah Stradling (483)

British-only prize money is allocated as £3000 for first in each of the men's and women's sections, £1500 for second and £1000 for third, down to £100 for tenth place overall.

The final runbritain Grand Prix standings are available in full in the dedicated section on the runbritain website while video of footage from event one (the Mizuno Reading Half Marathon) and event four (the Bristol Half Marathon) can be found on runbritain TV and via YouTube.