106.5 JACK fm Bristol

Home > News > Regional News > Record number of runners take part in the Great South Run

Sunday, October 28th 2012 01:00

25,000 people are taking in the main race in Portsmouth.

Dame Kelly Holmes is getting ready to send a record 25,000 runners on their way in the Great South Run in Southsea this morning.

The 10 mile race gets started at 10.30 on Clarence Esplanade and also takes in the citys Historic Dockyard.

Pompey Legend Linvoy Primus will be taking part.

He hopes today will be easier than his first race last year:

Since it started in 1991, runners taking part in the Great South Run have raised more than £30 million pounds.

Councillor Lee Hunt from Portsmouth City Council says the city's a great place to stage it:

While many taking part in this morning's Great South Run in Portsmouth are raising cash for charity, it's also an opportunity for a bit of friendly competition.

In the women's race 39-year-old Olympian Jo Pavey will bid to regain the title she won in 2006 in Southsea.

But she'll be facing fellow Team GB members Julia Bleasdale and Claire Hallissey.

Jo has been speaking to our reporter David Brown and says she's looking forward to pounding the streets of Portsmouth again:

Team GB hopeful Charlotte Purdue who's from Hook is hoping to finish at in a good time:

Jo Rawlings from Locks Health is running to raise money for Epilepsy Research UK in  memory of her late friend Toby Rickard-Elliot

She hopes her efforts can make a difference.

A number of famous faces will be running the fast and flat course, including 400m sprinter Iwan Thomas and Sally Gunnell, twenty years after winning gold in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Runners will be entertained by ‘bands on the run’, including the Portsmouth-based Royal Marines School of Music, who will perform in front of the historic HMS Victory.

Olympic medallists Tariku Bekele and Abel Kirui will lead the men’s athletes on Sunday. They face a predominantly overseas field, including former European Cross Country silver medallist Ayad Lamdassem of Spain, along with Irishman Alistair Cragg - who ran one of the best races of his career when placing third at the Bupa Great South Run 2011.

Leading the British challenge will be USA-based Andrew Lemoncello, who after a lengthy absence won last month's Denver half marathon, followed with second position at the Bupa Great Edinburgh Run, and Jonny Mellor - a surprise winner of last month's Bupa Great Yorkshire Run.

The Bupa Great South Run will be broadcast live on Channel 5 from 10:00-12:00.

More from Regional News

Listen Live

Now Playing

Phil Collins
Sussudio

Navigation