Jo Pavey lead from the start to take victory at the Bupa Great South Run - an IAAF Gold Label 10 miles Race - in Portsmouth on Sunday.
Six years after she first won this race, her first major international road race, she hammered her rivals crossing the line in a time of 53:01, ahead of fellow Brit Jess Coulson and Berhane Adere of Ethiopia.
Pavey now 39-year-old, but adamant she can continue her career and make a fifth successive Olympic Games appearance in four year’s time, ruthlessly brushed away not only the overseas challengers but the younger domestic pretenders itching to scalp one of the UK’s greatest ever distance runners.
The leading non-African finisher in this summer’s Olympic 5,000 metres and 10,000m finals breezed through the first mile in 5:17 opening a 20m lead. By the half distance she had increased that to over 200m, her foreign rivals Adere, Alessandr Aguilar of Spain and Italy’s Nadia Ejjafini being left flat footed by her unexpected fast start.
So too were the Brit contingent notably fellow Olympians Claire Hallissey who posted the previous fastest UK 10 mile time this year of 54:37 in Washington DC in the spring and debutant over the distance Julia Bleasdale who at the London Games was a position behind Pavey in both track races.
Pavey’s awesome front running also thwarted the ambitions of Coulson who nevertheless after a spell of niggling injuries showed she is regaining the form which identified her as a very talented teenager and Gemma Steel tipped as a likely winner after a recent purple patch but who fell off the pace in the last mile.
But Pavey apart from showing strain on her face in the final two miles on what she admitted felt like a never ending finishing straight stretch produced a victory reminiscent of when Paula Radcliffe set the British record in Portsmouth of 51:11 in 2008.
“I just thought I would go off at a reasonable pace and plug away” said Pavey who was surprised she went unchallenged but delighted with her form before competing in next month’s Yokohama Marathon. “I tried not to take off too quickly.
“I like a flat course and this really suits me but the last two miles were very hard. That’s because you’re giving it your final effort as you can see the finish line in the distance ahead of you. They were hard but I knew what to expect.
“All you can see is a straight line but I loved the challenge of it. You need to add a bit of sharpness but it’s always a worry going into a race when you’re training for a marathon.”
Pavey who had to concentrate on the track after Hallissey, following her outstanding performance in last April’s Virgin London Marathon was preferred by Team GB selectors, made it plain she intends carrying on until at least the 2016 Rio Janeiro Olympics.
“The crowds were brilliant and I was really pleased how it went and I’d like to keep going,” she insisted. “I’m getting older but still enjoying it.”
Sportsister, The Women’s Sports Magazine
