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Birmingham and Thompson triumph at Skilled Burnie Ten
Victorian distance runners Collis Birmingham and Anna Thompson have taken out Australia's premier 10km road race, the 22nd Skilled Burnie Ten.
A record field of 3677 competed in Sunday’s event, which saw an exciting sprint to the finish in the men's elite race.
Young gun Collis Birmingham, the reigning national under 23 cross country champion, held off Queenslander Michael Shelley to win in a time of 29.20.
Birmingham and Shelley opened up a slight break from the pack with about 1km to go. Birmingham made his move at the bottom of the hill approaching the finish line in Wilson Street to just hold off Shelley.
Shelley, 23, the 2006 Australian cross-country championship bronze medallist, finished two seconds behind in 29.22.
Tasmania's Kim Gillard, 36, ran an excellent race to finish third in 29.26.
World-class marathon runner Lee Troop was unable to break his Burnie Ten drought finishing fourth in 29.30 with the reigning Telstra Zatopek 10,000m champion Brett Cartwright fifth in 29.31.
Birmingham, 21, a renowned track runner, was rapt with his first Burnie Ten win.
"It was my first time over here and basically my first time in a 10km race so to come away with a win - I was really happy with it," Birmingham told The Examiner after the race.
"I thought I was in good shape but there were a lot of good guys running and I thought I'd be up there - but to come away with a win was great."
Fresh from her outstanding 20km best run at the inaugural IAAF World Road Running Championships in Hungary last week, Anna Thompson, 29, put in a remarkable performance considering she only arrived back in the country last Wednesday.
The reigning national cross-country champion led all the way in the women's race winning in 33.58, her time placing her 23rd overall in the event’s history.
She opened up a big gap on NSW runner Lisa Corrigan who was second across the line in 34.36 with Tasmania's Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Donna McFarlane third in 35.21.
Thompson, a perennial runner-up in the women's event, has finished second on three occasions. She bettered her time of 34:22 from last year, when she was defeated by Commonwealth Games marathon champion, Kerry McCann.
"I came here to win and it's nice to finally win one after quite a few years," Thompson told The Examiner after the race.
"I've been running well on the road and was confident I had a good chance this year."
"It was a bit of a relief to get one after being so close so many times," she said.
Australia's premier 10km road race, the Skilled Burnie Ten, is held in the heart of Burnie’s central business district on Tasmania’s North-West Coast.
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