Johnson joy at Great South Run

World cross country champion Benita Johnson narrowly missed breaking the long-standing Australian 10-mile record in Sunday’s BUPA Great South Run.

Given no help whatsoever by the strong winds whipping off the Solent, Johnson was nine seconds shy of Lisa Ondieki’s 1987 mark around the Portsmouth course.

The weather, and the fact she was running on her own foralmost the entire second half of the race, slowed her to a winning time of 52 minutes and 32seconds.

She finished 24th overall in the mixed race, and added: “I was running in a vacuum after five miles, but couldn’t quite catch the guy ahead of me.