Dibaba to make half marathon debut at Bupa Great North Run

Three-times Olympic gold medallist Tirunesh Dibaba - the London Olympic Games 10,000m champion - will turn her attention to winning the Bupa Great North Run this Sunday (September 16).

Dibaba will make her debut over the half marathon distance in the World's greatest 13.1 mile race from Newcastle-to-South Shields where the elite field includes reigning Olympic and World marathon champions Tikki Gelana and Edna Kiplagat in addition to Team GB 10,000m finalist Jo Pavey who finished seventh in the Olympics and is second on the runbritain National Ladder.

Dibaba’s appearance in the IAAF Gold Label Event is a clear indication that the 27-year-old Ethiopian, following a highly successful track and cross country career, now intends to switch her attention to road racing including a possible marathon next spring.

Dibaba has limited experience of road racing, having mainly competed over five kilometres in recent years, but in a rare outing over 15km in 2009 she set a World Record of 46:28 minutes in Nijmegen.

Now Dibaba is taking the first step forward to emulating the achievements of her cousin Derartu Tulu, the World's greatest ever women's distance runner, who has secured legendary status with victories including the Tokyo, London and New York City Marathons.

As well as Jo Pavey, Scotland's Team GB Olympic marathon representative Freya Murray will compete in this weekend’s event alongside 2011 runbritain Grand Prix winner Gemma Steel and 2012 contender Caryl Jones who is one place ahead of Murray in this year’s standings in 16th.

Although not part of the runbritain Grand Prix (the next event is the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k on Sunday 23 September), the Bupa Great North Run gives the masses a great opportunity to get involved in road running at a competitive level as all those involved have the opportunity to claim their free runbritain handicap post event if they haven’t done so already, or to improve their handicaps and give themselves a chance of winning one of the many prizes up for grabs in September’s edition of Reward Running!