Athletics: Kenyans celebrate great day on streets of Capital

On his third visit to the Capital – he was second in the Great Edinburgh Cross last January – 19-year-old Titus Mbishei was an impressive winner of the men's race and a delighted and delightful wearer of a kilt for the victory ceremony after finishing in 28:46 – 14 seconds clear of the favourite Edwin Soi.

Florence Kiplagat was an equally emphatic winner of the women's race, ten seconds ahead of two formidable fellow-countrywomen Grace Momanyi and Doris Changeywo.

The twice Olympic 10K champion and three-times World Cross champion Derartu Tulu (Ethiopia) denied having her heel clipped during the race and insisted her poor form was entirely due to the tough opening hill up through the Park to the Royal Commonwealth Pool. Tulu, who is known not to like hilly courses, finished eighth to give Edinburgh's own Freya Murray a notable scalp

Such, however, was the dominance of Kiplagat over the second half of the course – which she galloped in 15:40, 50 seconds faster than the albeit tougher first 5k – that even Tulu at her best might have been hard-pressed to keep up.

Kiplagat, who followed in Tulu's footsteps by last year winning the World Cross title, will not be resting on her laurels and wants to come back next year and beat the course record.

"It's not an easy course, in fact it's very difficult, but where I train in Kenya is quite hilly and now I know that my body can take it I want to come back and break the record," she said.

Kiplagat's next race will be her track-season opener over 5k in the Shanghai IAAF Grand Prix on 23 May but, perhaps more significantly for Murray, Kiplagat is confidently predicting that she will beat her own Kenyan 10k record of 30:11 and even go under the 30-minute barrier when she runs in the UK Championships in Birmingham in late June.

Significant because, despite being a "wee bit disappointed" with her 33.35 run yesterday, Murray was only 1:25 slower than the Kenyan, who like Murray is targeting the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

Translate those times to the track and the 26-year-old Newcastle-based engineer could go well under the Scottish qualifying standard of 32:35 and even well under 32 minutes – if she can find the right race.

Although still undecided about which distance to opt for – and she leaves today for a month's altitude training with coach Steve Jones in Boulder, Colorado – Murray has identified next month's European Cup event, for which the British 10k rep has still to be picked, as a possible outing over the longer distance.

But, after yesterday's race, Murray was typically downplaying her achievement: "It wasn't meant to be – it was very tough, especially at the start, and I would like to have run a wee bit better in my native city though, overall, it was a really great day.

"It's a nice feeling getting involved in races like this and hopefully it's the first of many."

Murray added: "I thought at one point I might get back to Kalovics (the Hungarian who finished one place ahead of her) as I saw her look over her shoulder but I don't think ceilidh dancing till quite late is the best preparation.

"But then your sister doesn't get married every day so good luck to Nicola and Kevin."

Murray also praised Edinburgh clubmate Jennifer MacLean who was just over two minutes slower (35:40) in leading home the victorious East in the Inter-District event, with Diane Lauder (Gala) a good second in 36:13.

Edinburgh University's Michael Gillespie (32:09) was the leading East runner in the men's race, in 12th place, two places behind brother Matthew (Glasgow), but the leading Scottish-based runners were the three Shettleston Harriers from Eritrea, Tsegeziab Woldemichael (30:15), Tsegai Tewelde (30:20) and Twelde Mengisteab (30:54).