Gebrselassie and Cheruiyot savour Manchester triumphs

Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie has won the 2009 Great Manchester Run 10km race in a time of 27 minutes 39 seconds, but hope of regaining his World 10km record was dashed by a strong headwind in Manchester city centre for the second part of the race.

Gebrselassie was aiming to better the 27:01 achieved by Kenya's Micah Kogo at the end of March and was on schedule after clocking 13:31 for the first five kilometres but for the strong headwind.

Ali Mabrouk El Zaidi of Libya was second in a time of 28:13 and Sergiy Lebid of Ukraine finished third in 28:36.

The 36-year-old Ethiopian also won with a UK All-Comers' record of 27:25 on his last visit to Manchester in 2005 before his arch rival Kogo lowered it by four seconds in 2007.

"Today it was wonderful in the first half but on the way back the wind was horrible," said Gebrselassie after clocking the fourth fastest time in the world this year.

"I wanted to run a world record but in the second half it proved too difficult."

The women's race was won by Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot's in a respectable time of 32:01.

And like Gebrselassie, the 25-year-old, who had her eyes on Paula Radcliffe's UK all-comers mark of 30:38, saw her chances wrecked in the finish straight by the weather.

"I broke clear after 5km and the race was not hard to win but the wind was so strong I couldn't achieve the time I wanted," she said.