WORLD CROSS CHAMPION JOSEPH EBUYA TO LINE-UP IN BUPA GREAT SOUTH RUN

Reigning World Cross Country champion, Joseph Ebuya, and top Briton, Andy Lemoncello, have joined the already highly competitive field for the Bupa Great South Run on October 24.

Ebuya will lead the Kenyan challenge in the 10 mile race over a fast and flat course in Portsmouth next weekend, while Lemoncello's exclusion from the British team for the World Half Marathon Championships has made him available. The USA-based Scot was due to wear his country's colours in Nanning on Saturday, but was refused a visa by the Chinese authorities, without any explanation. While bad news for the GB team, it is a welcome bonus for the Bupa Great South Run, allowing Lemoncello to lead the British chase for a podium place in the 21st staging of the world's top rated 10 mile event. The pair will line up against Switzerland's Viktor Rothlin, this summer's European Championships marathon gold medallist, and Guenther Weidlinger, the surprise Austrian winner of last year's Great Australian Run. "We've also got another Kenyan, Vincent Yator, who just missed out on a medal in a close 5000 metres at the Commonwealth Games, so it's going to be a highly competitive race," said Peter Riley, the meeting's elite athletes manager. Riley added: "Of course it's a bonus Lemoncello is now available, although I know he had been gearing up to produce a good display at the World Half Marathon after being the first Briton home over the distance at last month's Bupa Great North Run. "I’m also delighted to have persuaded Ebuya, the first Kenyan winner of the World Cross gold medal since Paul Tergat in 1999, to come and along and add his stature to the race." The Bupa Great South Run, one of only 23 events worldwide holding an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Gold Label rating, the highest accolade any road running meeting can be given, will be televised live on Channel 5 from 1030am on October 24. Ends Editors notes Nova International The Bupa Great South Run is brought to you by 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 Bupa Great North Run, the world’s largest 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. 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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