Great North Run

Encyclopedia : G : GR : GRE : Great North Run

The Great North Run is the world's most popular half marathon road running event. Participants run between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and South Shields. The run was devised by former Olympic 10,000 m bronze medallist and BBC Sport commentator Brendan Foster. Foster was inspired after running in the Round the Bays Race in New Zealand in 1979.

The first ever Great North Run was staged on the 28 June, 1981, when 12,000 runners participated. By 2003, the number of participants had risen to 47,000. For the first year it was advertised as a local fun run; twenty years on it has become one of the biggest running events in the world.

In recent years, a Great North Mile has also been held.

In the 2004 Great North Mile race on Saturday 25 September, double Olympic Gold medalist Kelly Holmes made her first appearance in Britain since returning from the 2004 Summer Olympics. Holmes also fired the gun to start the main event on Sunday 26 September, and waved and shook hands with many of the 50,000 starters.

Contents

1 Winners of the men's race
2 Winners of the women's race
3 Winners of the wheelchair race
4 2005 Great North Run
5 External links

Winners of the men's race

2003 Hendrick Ramaala South Africa
2004 Dejene Berhanu Ethiopia 59' 37"
2005 Zersenay Tadesse Eritrea 59' 05"

Winners of the women's race

2004 Benita Johnson Australia 76' 55"
2005 Derartu Tulu Ethiopia 67' 03"

Winners of the wheelchair race

2005 Great North Run

In the 2005 Great North Run, the race celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary. Events to mark the anniversary included the launch of the Great North Run Cultural Programme at the Sage Gateshead

Tragically, on race day itself, four participants died en route to South Shields.

External links

[Bupa GNR]

An inquest into the four deaths from 2005 began on Monday 5 June 2006 at Gateshead Council Chambers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/4257630.stm
http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/eveningchronicle/eveningchronicle/tm_objectid=17167364&method=full&siteid=50081&headline=north-run-inquests-warning-name_page.html

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.