Britain's Farah and Portugal's Monteiro get Cup victories
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| Briton Mo Farah won the men's race clocking a personal best time of 27:28.86 at the European Cup 10000m in Marseille, France, on Saturday. |
Farah clocked 27:28.86 to post the fastest time by a European runner over 25 laps of the track for nearly two years and he became the third fastest British runner ever. It was a massive personal best in only his second race at the distance having run 27:44.54 in his debut two years ago.
He moved to the front in the early stages of the race, following the Kenyan pacemaker Philemon Limo, and went through the halfway point in 13:50.
There was already a gap of around 70 metres between Farah and the rest of the field and he kept on extending his lead in the second half of the race, passing 8000m in 22.05.
A penultimate lap of 63 seconds, followed by a final circuit of 58 seconds saw the former SPAR European Cross Country Championships winner cross the line at least a lap in front of the rest of the 23 finishers apart from the three men immediately behind him.
"My main aim tonight was to get the qualifying time for the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona. I'm delighted to have done it and I feel like I have a lot more in the tank and can run much faster over the distance. I'm looking forward to getting back into a period of training now and preparing for that," said Farah.
In a close race for the runners up spot, France's Abdellatif Meftah was second in 28.12.83 while Spain's 2009 winner Chema Martinez was third with 28:13.82, both men more than half a lap behind Farah.
Farah now has the option of doubling up at the European Athletics Championships next month, which will be held in Barcelona between 26 July and 1 August.
He has previously said that his priority lies over 5000m, the distance at which he got a silver medal four years ago, but his thoughts may have changed after his run on Saturday.
France, lead home by Meftah, just the beat defending champions Portugal in a close team competition, their top three men home posting a combined time of 1:25:47.40, winning by less than 12 seconds with Portugal clocking 1:25:59.39.
Monteiro, the 2009 Cup winner, took the women's race in a personal best of 31:13.58, slicing more than ten seconds off her previous best of 31:25.67 which she ran last year in the World Championships 10000m final.
She finished ahead of Germany's Sabrina Mockenhaupt (31:23.86) with another Portuguese runner, Sara Moreira, third on her debut at the distance in 31:26.55.
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| Defending champion Ines Monteiro of Portugal retained her title winning the women's race in a personal best of 31:13.58. She sliced more than ten seconds off her previous best of 31:25.67. |
With three women in the top seven, Portugal were clear winners of the team contest with a combined time of 1:35:05.74, finishing more than three minutes clear of second-placed Great Britain 1:38:21.40, who leading runner Freya Murray finished sixth in a personal best of 32:23.44.
Ribeiro was actually the winner of the 2nd European Cup 10,000m back in 1998, in its previous incarnation at the European Challenge and holds the Portuguese record with 30:22.88 for fifth place on the European all-time list.
Two places further back was Germany's Irina Mikitenko in 32:48.69, the 2008 and 2009 London Marathon winner and three-time runner up in the Cup returning to competition after shin problems forced her to drop out of this year's London Marathon.
A stride behind Mikitenko was Great Britain's 2009 SPAR European Cross Country Championships winner Hayley Yelling, finishing tenth in 32:49.07.
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