Weekend Update
The Great North Run took centre stage over the weekend as the top British finishers went home with career bests. Sir Mo Farah not only won again but took his best time down to 59:07 for the 13.1 miles.
Sir Mo Farah (handicap -7.2) won a sixth consecutive Great North Run title in a superb personal best of 59:07 ahead of Ethiopian Tamirat Tola. He was pushed all the way, finding another acceleration in the final mile to confirm his dominance of this event in the north east. Callum Hawkins (handicap -6.9) was fourth overall, racing to a time of 60:39, which served him well as he prepares for the marathon at the IAAF World Championships.
In the women’s race, Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei ran the fastest ever half-marathon by a woman to finish over three minutes ahead of any of her challengers in 64:28 and well under a 5-minutes per mile pace.
Charlotte Purdue (handicap -1.9) moved to third on the UK all-time list for the women’s half marathon, moving behind Paula Radcliffe and Liz Nuttall in the rankings thanks for a time of 68:10. She battled hard, pushing Mary Keitany in the closing stages, to secure a personal best and the perfect preparation for the World Championship marathon in Doha. Fellow Brits Steph Twell (handicap -2.5) and Hayley Carruthers (handicap -2.0) also ran PBs of 70:52 and 71:05 respectively.
On Saturday, in the Great North City Games, there were several victories for Brits, including Eilish McColgan (handicap -3.1) who secured victory in the women’s mile, recording a time of 4:32.04.
In Switzerland, Commonwealth bronze medallist Robbie Simpson (handicap -4.4) was victorious in the mountains of the Jungfrau Marathon, battling the conditions to clock 2:59.30 to win the 42km event.
At the Scottish 10km Championships in Stirling, Birchfield Harriers’ Omar Ahmed (handicap -5.7), broke the Stirling 10k course record with 28.53, while Fionnuala Ross (handicap -0.4), claimed the Scottish title in a time of 33.38. Scotland's World Para Athletics Marathon silver medallist, Derek Rae (handicap -3.0), clocked a huge PB of 31:15 to continue his excellent 2019 season.
Aimee Pratt (handicap -0.8) smashed another personal best as she raced over 1500m in Andujar, Spain. Having taken nearly ten seconds off her 3000m steeplechase personal best in Italy last week, Pratt continued her brilliant form clocking a PB of 4:12.52.
Kyle Langford (handicap -6.4) showed his form at the IAAF World Challenge in Zagreb, as he won the second of two 800m races. The Commonwealth silver medallist at Gold Coast showed his trademark kick around the bend as he won in 1:46.69. Langford was one of many Brits in action in Zagreb with steeplechaser Phil Norman (handicap -2.9) once again ducking under 8:30 with 8:29.93 in Croatia. Elsewhere Jemma Reekie (handicap -2.3) got one over British rival Sarah McDonald (handicap -2.4) in the 1500m as the Scot finished third in 4:09.21 with her teammate fifth in 4:09.74.
Other results via the following links: