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Mary Ngugi-Cooper and Abel Kipchumba make it Kenyan double at Great North Run

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Mary Ngugi-Cooper and Abel Kipchumba make it Kenyan double at Great North Run

Ngugi-Cooper was a part of a six-strong lead group that stayed collectively just about to the wire, with the 35-year-old pipping Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi in a dash end.

Ngugi-Cooper is the eleventh successive Kenyan winner of the ladies’s occasion however has robust hyperlinks to the UK. She relies in Leeds along with her British husband and is coached by Steve Cram.

Eilish McColgan completed fifth (Richard Sellers/PA)

She advised the BBC: “It was superb. It’s all the time been a dream for me to come back and race right here on the Nice North Run. To win it, it’s a dream come true. It was a bit mentally robust as a result of nobody was dropping and also you’re coming to the final mile and everyone seems to be there.”

Britain’s Eilish McColgan was a part of the lead group and crossed the road in fifth, 5 seconds behind Ngugi-Cooper, whose successful time was one hour, seven minutes and 40 seconds.

“I’m actually proud of that,” mentioned Scot McColgan. “It was a very robust discipline that was assembled this yr so to be amongst these ladies and nonetheless be there with 200 metres to go, when you’d advised me that final week I’d have snapped your hand off.”

The boys’s race was a one-man present, Kipchumba breaking away early on and defying the moist situations to cross the road in 59mins 52secs.

Britain’s Marc Scott, winner of the occasion in 2021, reeled in Norway’s Sondre Moen to complete second, one minute and 19 seconds adrift.

Marc Scott puts his finger up as he crosses the line
Former champion Marc Scott crosses the road (Richard Sellers/PA)

There have been residence winners of each the wheelchair occasions in Jade Corridor and Johnboy Smith.

Corridor was making her comeback after giving beginning to her daughter in March and she or he mentioned: “I wasn’t actually certain the way it was going to go. The climate was difficult right this moment however I actually loved it.

“It’s been actually laborious. I do really feel like I’ve acquired a unique physique now and I’m studying how that works for me.”

Smith mentioned: “It was race, very, very robust. Moist, chilly, depressing, however enjoyable all on the identical time.”

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