With the confirmation of fourteen Olympians for this year’s event, the Great Australian Run to be held on Sunday 29^th November in Melbourne is once again shaping up as Australia’s best quality road race.

Providing recreational runners with the opportunity to compete alongside the world’s best, the event also encompasses the Australian Road Running Championships in which our nation’s best male and female runners compete to be crowned national champion across 15km.

In recent days, German star Irina Mikitenko has been added to the stellar line up which includes the past two male Olympic marathon champions; Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya and Stefano Baldini of Italy.

Becoming the first ever non-African women to do so, Mikitenko has recently been crowned World Marathon Majors champion in New York. This follows back to back wins at the London Marathon in 2008 and 2009 together with becoming the fourth fastest woman in history with her time of 2:19.19 at the Berlin Marathon last year.

This year’s Great Australian Run will mark Mikitenko’s only visit to our shores aside from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“Out of my three Olympic Games, the best was the one in Sydney. I am looking forward to returning to Australia and hoping for a similar atmosphere at the Great Australian Run,” she says.

Mikitenko will be joined on the track by Australian favourite Benita Willis (formerly Johnson).

Willis, the 2004 world cross country champion, enters the race as the nation’s number one distance runner and likely favourite for the crowning of national champion as part of the Australian Road Running Championships.

Fellow Australians joining Willis on the course are men’s 10000m Australian record holder Collis Birmingham, three-time Olympians Lee Troop and Craig Mottram and Olympic Gold medallist and national icon Cathy Freeman.

To be broadcast live on Network Ten and ONE HD, the event is still open for registrations.

Log onto www.greataustralianrun.com.au and follow the links to the registration page.

 

Olympians participating in the 2009 Great Australian Run:

MEN

Collis Birmingham (AUS), Craig Mottram (AUS), Lee Troop (AUS), Sammy Wanjiru (KEN), Stefano Baldini (ITA), Guenther Weidlinger (AUT), Jose Manuel Martinez (ESP), Dan Robinson (GBR)

WOMEN

Benita Willis (AUS), Cathy Freeman (AUS), Irina Mikitenko (GER), Deena Kastor (USA), Helen Clitheroe (GBR), Nina Rillstone (NZL)

Athletics Australia – NEWS