Johnson back in shape with Edinburgh win

Published on Sunday 4 May 2008 21:40

BENITA Johnson could not hide her delight after storming to a convincing victory in yesterday morning's Bupa Great Edinburgh Run.

Australia's 2004 world cross country champion, who missed four months training during the winter with a knee injury, blew away the challenge of Kenya's Rose Cheruiyot by 13 seconds.

She completed the 10 kilometres in 32 minutes 20 seconds, with Aniko Kalovics of Hungary third in 33min 32sec. Johnson is the event's second women's title holder, following in the footsteps of Jelena Prokopcuka, who dominated the first three stagings of the event. "After my injury, I'm so happy to win here," said Johnson. "I put in a lot of hard work before Edinburgh and, over what was a hard course, I'm delighted to see the benefits. I now have a strong base to build upon towards the Olympics."

Vicky Gill was the first Brit home after finishing sixth in 35min 2sec.

In the men's race, Commonwealth 10,000m champion Boniface Kiprop lost a sprint for the line for the third time in the event after being outpaced by Bernard Kipyego.

The Ugandan, runner-up in 2005 and again 12 months ago, made a strong break just 200 metres from the line but Kipyego followed hot on his tail.

The 21-year-old Kenyan overtook him to win by three seconds in 28min 59sec, with El Hassan Lahsinni of France just a second behind Kiprop.