Posted: April 6, 2006

Athletics: Mottram, Rudolph To Defend Great Ireland Run Titles

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Nova International, the organizer of the BUPA Great Ireland Run, has put together a very strong race for Sunday's BUPA Great Ireland Run to be held in Dublin in Phoenix Park.

Leading the men's field is the Commonwealth Games silver medalist at 5000m, Craig Mottram of Australia. Mottram is the defending champion, setting the course record of 28:35 last year. His key competition should come from Ukranian cross country ace, Sergey Lebid, six times the European cross country champion. Kenyan Paul Bitok should also be in the mix, with Irishman Mark Carroll, Hungarian Barnabas Bene, and Russian Vyacheslav Shabunin.

American Amy Rudolph will be defending her title in the women's race. She ran 32:16 last year to set the course record, just two seconds up on national hero, Sonia O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan, who was forced to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games with a hamstring injury, remains injured and had to withdraw from this race, too. Elite athlete coordinator Matthew Turnbull replaced O'Sullivan with the recent double individual bronze medalist from the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia.

"Melkamu jumped at the opportunity to come and compete in Dublin and clearly is in great shape," said Turnbull in a press release yesterday. "On paper given her current form she must start as favorite, but let's remember after her exertions in Fukuoka," he added. "She might be a little on the tired side after her efforts."

Rudolph and Melkamu are facing a strong field, including multiple Olympic medalist, Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal; road running and cross country ace, Aniko Kalovics of Hungary; and the evergreen Sally Barsosio of Kenya, who won last weekend's Cooper River Bridge Run 10-K in Charleston, S.C.

The course is made up of one small loop of about 2.5 km, followed by one long loop of 7.5 km. The start and finish are in exactly the same place, so this course is eligible for record setting. A course map is available here: GreatRun.org.

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