22 November 2009 - Koreni Jelila and Tilahun Regassa stole the honours at the Ethiopian Airlines 2009 Great Ethiopian Run 10km in Addis Ababa earlier today, both winning in new course records.

Jelila reproduced her winning form of one week earlier when she had won the season’s first domestic cross-country race of 2009 by breaking clear of Mestawot Tufa and Belaynesh Oljira in the last mile of the race. Regassa had a much harder struggle in a race led for most of the way by Abera Kuma, only getting the better of his younger rival in a fierce sprint over the final 200m. In breaking the course records, both athletes picked up a bonus of 10,000 birr ($800) to add to their prizewinning of 25,000 Birr ($2,000).

An estimated 34,000 took part in the race which included around 2,000 unofficial runners, thus beating the previous total of 31,500  set last year.

The races were started by the Mayor of Addis Ababa Kuma Demeksa standing alongside Haile Gebrselassie, Derartu Tulu and Paula Radcliffe. Radcliffe has been in Addis Ababa for the weekend supporting a number of events and projects connected with the race.

The TOYOTA Ambassadors’ Competition was won for a fourth consecutive year by Norwegian Ambassador Jens-Petter Kjemperud in a time of 50 minutes.

The first foreigner to finish was an Irish participant in a time of 38 minutes who came to Addis Ababa with a group of 72 Irish runners raising funds for ORBIS Ireland.

Assefa Gebrselassie, the older brother of Haile Gebrselassie finished his ninth consecutive Great Ethiopian Run 10km in just under 39 minutes.

Results:

Men
1.    Tilahun Regassa, 28.36
2.    Abera Kuma, 28.37
3.    Feyisa Lelisa, 28,41

Women
1.    Koreni Jelila, 33.03
2.    Amane Godane, 33.18
3.    Belaynesh Oljira, 33.38