Double Trouble For Dibaba To End 2016
TIRUNESH DIBABA will take on two British road races as the triple Olympic champion looks to end her 2016 season on a high.
The Ethiopian returns to the UK for the Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run half marathon on October 2 before taking on the best of British in the Great South Run 10-mile event on October 23, following her third-place finish in September’s Great North Run half marathon.
Dibaba, the finest female distance runner of a generation, won the Great Manchester Run in May on her return to the sport following the birth of her first child, and added to her Olympic medal haul in Rio this summer by taking bronze in the 10,000m.
Dibaba’s three Olympic gold medals came in 2008 where she won both the 10,000m and the 5,000m, and in 2012 when she triumphed over the 10,000m in London.
The five-time world champion and world record holder over 5,000m and fourth fastest 10,000m runner of all time, nicknamed the Baby-Faced Destroyer, was third behind winner Vivian Cheruiyot and Priscah Jeptoo in last weekend’s Great North Run half marathon, but will be aiming to finish on top in her final two races of the year, in Scotland and Portsmouth.
The 31-year-old will take on Kenya’s Betsy Saina in Glasgow, and her opposition in the Great South Run – the world’s leading ten-mile event – will be an almost entirely domestic field.
The Isle of White’s Jess Andrews, Olympic marathon representative Aly Dixon, Lily Partridge, Charlotte Purdue, Beth Potter and Eli Kirk lead a stellar cast of Britain’s best distance running talent along with European half marathon silver medallist Veronica Inglese.
The world’s leading 10 mile run starts and finishes in Southsea and gives participants a unique opportunity to run through Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, passing iconic landmarks such as HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the Mary Rose Museum.
The flat course has been graced by world-class athletes such as Liz McColgan, Paula Radcliffe, Sonia O’Sullivan, and Mo Farah, who won the men’s race in 2009.
The event has grown into a festival of sport in Portsmouth and Southsea, with around 30,000 people taking part in four events across two days, including the Junior & Mini Great South Run and the Great South Run 5k.
Find out more at www.greatrun.org/south
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