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Ndereba on board for HBA Great Australian Run
Reigning world champion Catherine Ndereba, the second-fastest marathon woman of all-time, is the latest signing for the HBA Great Australian Run to be held in Melbourne on Sunday 30 November.
The Kenyan’s major championship record is unsurpassed in women’s distance running with six starts for six medals, including two world championship victories (2003 and 2007) and two Olympic marathon silvers (2004 and 2008) since she began her international career in 1999.
Her appearance on the roads of Melbourne will set up an Olympic re-match with her Beijing conqueror, Constantina Dita-Tomescu of Romania.
With just one month remaining to the HBA Great Australian Run, the 15km classic has quickly become the best quality road race ever staged in Australia, outside the Sydney Olympics. The line up includes world marathon record holder Haile Gebreslassie of Ethiopia, Olympic marathon champion Dita-Tomescu of Romania, and now the reigning world marathon champions Luke Kibet of Kenya and Ndereba, who will line up against Australia’s best including Craig Mottram and Benita Johnson.
In a further boost, British star Jo Pavey, the 2006 Commonwealth Games 5000m silver medallist, is also confirmed for the start line.
However, the vast majority of entrants will be casual weekend joggers and walkers of all levels – enjoying this unique opportunity to run with the world’s best athletes whilst targeting their own personal objectives such as a personal best time or just a race finish. Entries are still open at www.greataustralianrun.com.au
Now 36 years old, there is much that is notable about Ndereba’s athletics history but perhaps the fact that she did not commence her career until she was 26 is the most extraordinary of all. Most Kenyan female athletes first make their mark as teenagers and a good many have long retired by the time they reach their mid twenties.
Women have run under the 2 hours 20 barrier for the marathon on only 14 occasions but three of those precious times belong to Ndereba. She sits in second spot on the all-time list behind Paula Radcliffe, with a personal best of 2hrs18.47 set whilst winning her second Chicago Marathon in 2001, just three years after taking up athletics seriously.
Ndereba’s career in athletics has been essentially on the road but she has run sparingly at the HBA Great Australian Run distance of 15km, with a personal best to date of 48mins 6 secs set in Utica, New York in July 2001 – a mark she will surely challenge in Melbourne in just over four weeks time.
The field for the race is further strengthened by the inclusion of British star Jo Pavey.
A year younger than the Kenyan, Pavey is making the transition from success at shorter distances on the track to 10,000 metres and beyond on both track and road.
It will be a fond return to Melbourne for the 35-year-old who took silver over 5000 metres at the Commonwealth Games in 2006, after finishing fifth over the same distance two years before at the Athens Olympics.
The step up to 10,000 metres has delivered encouraging results, with a fourth placing in last year’s World Championships in Osaka followed up by a personal best of 31.12.30 in an extraordinary women’s final in Beijing in August.
The HBA Great Australian Run will be telecast live by Network Ten around Australia from 8.30am on race day, and the coverage will also be seen by countless millions around the globe when the highlights program is later transmitted by Great Run partner stations in Europe, Africa and Asia and by Fox Sport in Australia and New Zealand.
More race details available now via www.greataustralianrun.com.au
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