Charities net tidy sum as 5,000 run Ladies mini marathon

THE streets of Cork city were thronged yesterday as 5,000 athletes took part in the 2003 Evening Echo Ladies Mini Marathon.

Even allowing for the dull, blustery conditions, the event was a huge success and raised a considerable sum for local based charities.

Rosemary Ryan of Bilboa A.C. won the event for the second time, crossing the line in a time of 27 minutes.

Ryan was using the mini-marathon in preparation for the World Half-Marathon Championships in the Algarve in Southern Portugal on the first weekend of October and the 28-year-old former Inter-club cross-country champion said it was a worthwhile exercise: "I'm happy with today, I was able to work hard and motor away," said Ryan. "It is nice to come back to a place where you have won before and you know the conditions and especially when you get a hard battle.

"The time is not overwhelmingly important, but you are always conscious of how you did the previous year and of course you aim to improve on that.

"There is still hard work to be done between now and the World Championships, but this has been a tremendous help and most of all, it has been fun."

Organised by the Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI), the field for the five mile race also included fun runners.

According to Mary Maher of the AAI, the casual athletes are as much a part of the day as the competitive runners: "This is the biggest annual event of its kind in Munster and with a large share of the proceeds going to charity, we are only too happy to have everybody on board.

"We had to limit the entry to 5,000 this year due to safety reasons but still charities will get a tidy sum, which is the important thing."

Paula Radcliffe was again in unbeatable form yesterday when scorching to a world half-marathon record time in this morning's BUPA Great North Run and then admitted her time had come as a big surprise.

Radcliffe crossed the line in 65 minutes 40 seconds, knocking four seconds off Susan Chepkemei's previous best set in Lisbon two years ago.

The British star ran riot over the 13.1 mile-long course from Newcastle to South Shields but said: "Really, it just happened.

Sonia O'Sullivan could not live with the fast early pace, but hung in courageously to eventually finish fourth in 68.40

Radcliffe said: "I knew I was on schedule to break the course record and picked up in the last half mile because I saw the clock on the timekeeping car.

"But it was only with 30 metres left I realised the world best was possible and I gave it everything I had.

While Radcliffe smashed almost every record she could on her journey from the city start to coastal finish, Hendrick Ramaala narrowly missed on also going into the record books.

The South African clocked the second-fastest time ever on domestic soil, winning by four seconds from Kenya's Jackson Koech in 60:01. Only last year's winner Paul Kosgei has gone faster in a British race. Last year his time was 59:58.