Gebrselassie and rivals fired up for Bupa 30th Great North Run

Haile Gebrselassie, the world's greatest-ever distance runner, will attempt to add the prestigious Bupa 30th Great North Run title to his global list of titles on Sunday.

Gebrselassie will compete for the first time ever in the world's biggest half marathon, from Newcastle to South Shields, fulfilling a long time promise made to race chairman Brendan Foster to take part in the Tyneside classic. The 37-year-old Ethiopian should have debuted at the meeting in 2000 but was forced to withdraw after winning his second successive Olympic 10000 metres gold medal, due to an Achilles injury which required surgery. Now the "Emperor”, a former world half marathon record holder, is determined to follow in the footsteps of other big name winners of the 13.1 miles race. There are hopes that Zersenay Tadese's five-year-old course record of 59 minutes 05 seconds could be broken, with last year's World Championships bronze medallist, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Abderrahim Bouramdane, fourth in the Virgin London Marathon, leading a high profile field. Gebrselassie, whose personal best and then world record is four seconds quicker than the course record, is adamant that having finally honoured his decade old pledge to take part, the major focus will be on scoring a victory. "My top priority here is to win the race," said Gebrselassie, well aware around 11 million Ethiopian fans back home will be watching their hero. The race will be broadcast live for the first time ever to the running-mad nation. "It's wonderful," he added. "This race is a long story and it's going to be a great race. It is really a big chance for me plus it's the 30th anniversary." Gebrselassie is street-wise enough to realise that despite his outstanding pedigree, he will be made to fight every inch of the way down the city-to-coast course to silence the threat of the world class field. 29-year-old Ritzenhein will be running in his first half marathon since clinching third in last autumn's World Half Marathon Championships, where he set his personal best of exactly 60 minutes on a cold morning in Birmingham. Ritzenhein, who on his debut over the distance placed third in the 2006 Bupa Great North Run, will come back to the meeting having increased his training routine significantly compared to what he did before that outstanding feat. “I'm sure the trio's competitive ability will guarantee a great race and that should naturally lead to a fast performance with good weather of course being a key factor," said Peter Riley, the event's elite athletes manager. Jose-Manuel Martinez, winner of the recent European Marathon silver medal, will lead the Spanish challenge for honours, while Andy Lemoncello, the top Briton in this year's Virgin London Marathon, heads the domestic contenders. In the elite women’s race, Tokyo-based Mara Yamauchi will be aiming to become the first British champion of the Bupa 30th Great North Run, since Paula Radcliffe in 2003. On Sunday, Yamauchi goes head-to-head with Romania’s Constantina Dita, the reigning Olympic gold medallist. Former champion Berhane Adere of Ethiopia and Portugal's Ana Dulce Felix, placed third a year ago, will also be strong title contenders. Yamauchi, before making her mark as a world class marathon runner by finishing sixth in Beijing behind Dita, finished 22nd at the 2004 Bupa Great North Run. The following year improved massively for sixth place with an impressive time of 69min 51sec. The 36-year-old, who has prepared for Sunday’s race in St Moritz, said: “I’ve been training at 1800 meters altitude. This is the fifth year I've been there so I know it really well. It's quite hilly, and good for trails, and also there's good road running there." “While we had perfect conditions in July, unfortunately it is very cold and wet at the moment,” she said. Former European Cross Country champion Hayley Yelling-Higham and her sister-in-law Liz Yelling, a two-time Olympic Marathon participant, will also be carrying British hopes of a podium finish. The wheelchair races will feature Great Britain's Paralympic medallists David Weir and Shelly Woods taking on extremely strong overseas opposition. For more information contact: - Lynsey Stephenson 0191 2263249 07595564266 lynsey.stephenson@nova-international.com Editors notes Nova International The Bupa 30th Great North Run is brought to you event organisers Nova International and is sponsored by Bupa. Nova International, headed by Olympic Medallist Brendan Foster is one of the UK’s leading event management and sports marketing agencies. The company’s current brand portfolio also includes some of the biggest running events in the world all based on the Great North Run, the world’s biggest half marathon with over 54,000 entries. Nova International was established in 1988 and has a strong sporting pedigree. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Nova have established themselves as a market leader in the world of sports marketing and event management. For more information please visit www.greatrun.org. In The Long Run… 30 Years of the Great North Run Celebrating the 30th staging of the Bupa Great North Run, this major new exhibition explores this enormously popular event. In The Long Run… 30 Years of the Great North Run looks at the significant role this event has played in reflecting and shaping the region's cultural identity. As well as the well known stories of elite runners, In The Long Run will also explore the huge organisational effort behind the Bupa Great North Run, documenting the event’s community spirit and creating a powerful piece of social history. Alongside interactive exhibits, memorabilia and star objects, In The Long Run will present artwork from the archives of Bupa Great North Run Culture and new commissions will be presented by Sir Peter Blake and Claire Leona Apps. About Bupa Bupa’s purpose is to help people lead longer, healthier, happier lives. A leading international healthcare group, we offer personal and company health insurance, run care homes for older people and hospitals, and provide workplace health services, health assessments and chronic disease management services, including health coaching, and home healthcare. With no shareholders, we invest our profits to provide more and better healthcare. We are committed to making quality, patient-centred, affordable healthcare more accessible in the areas of wellness, chronic disease management and ageing. Employing over 50,000 people, Bupa has operations around the world, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, China and across Latin America. For more information, visit www.bupa.com.

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