Haile Gebrselassie, who is affectionately known as the Emperor of distance running, conquered his opponents with a stunning performance in yesterday’s Great Scottish Run.
The 40-year-old Ethiopian, who has won two Olympic 10,000m gold medals and four world championship titles during a glittering career, added a few more honours to his collection on the streets of Glasgow.
Gebrselassie covered the half marathon course in 61min 9sec – the fastest time run for the distance in Scotland and 32 seconds quicker than the world over-40 age group record he set in last month’s Great North Run on Tyneside.
Gebrselassie was delighted with the outcome and said: “I don’t know why it has taken me so long to come to Scotland but I have had a lot of fun. Everything was wonderful, I am so happy.”
The Ethiopian was involved in a cat-and-mouse race with Kenya’s Emmanuel Bett until the 11-mile mark when Gebrselassie surged clear, quickly opening up a 100m lead which extended to 30 seconds by the finish.
Bett recorded 61:40 to take second position while Spain’s Ayad Lamdassem was third in 61:59.
Chris Thompson was the leading Briton when finishing fifth in 64:49 and Arizona-based Andrew Lemoncello (Fife AC) was top Scot, sixth overall, in 64:55.
Lemoncello said: “I only arrived the day before so I was feeling a little tired. I found it tough, but the crowds were phenomenal in giving encouragement.”
The Fife athlete will now begin to focus on his Commonwealth Games preparations although he has not yet decided which event he would prefer to tackle.
He said: “I’d like to do the 10,000m as it would be fantastic to run at Hampden in front of a huge crowd.
“But if I get a marathon qualifying time then that would be an option.”
Kyle Greig (Forres Harriers) set a personal best time of 68:52 when finishing 13th. The result was a 13sec improvement on the Aberdeen-based runner’s previous best set at Inverness in March.
He said: “I’m really happy with my performance as I haven’t been doing much specific half marathon training.”
Leeds-based Susan Partridge, who comes from Oban, was an impressive winner of the women’s race when finishing 17th overall from a field of more than 11,000 runners in 70:40.
The time is just nine seconds outside her personal best time set at Bath in March.
Partridge ran with Olympic Games marathon runner and fellow Scot Freya Ross for the first five miles before edging into a lead which stretched all the way to the finish.
Another Scot, Steph Twell, was fourth in 73:54.
Partridge looked composed and confident throughout and she admitted to being delighted with the victory.
She said: “I thought it might be a closer race but after four miles or so I felt good and began to ease away.
“It was great to have three Scots in the top four. Scotland should be proud of its distance runners.”
Aberdeen AAC’s Nicola Gauld finished fourth in the women’s division of the accompanying Glasgow 10km. Beth Potter (Glasgow) held off a strong challenge from Great Britain marathon international Hayley Haining (Kilbarchan AC) to win by one sec in 34:04.
Laura Dunn (Edinburgh AC) was third in 34:51 while Gauld was next home in 35:40.
Callum Hawkins (Kilbarchan AC) won the men’s race in 29:39.