Weidlinger wins Great Australian Run

AFP 29 November 2009, 08:50am IST

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MELBOURNE: Austrian Guenther Weidlinger upstaged Olympic champions Sammy Wanjiru and Stefano Baldini to take out the Great Australian Run over 15kilometres (9.3 miles) on Sunday. 

The three-time Olympian kicked clear in the final stages of the mass public run to win in 43 minutes and one second and 17 seconds ahead of Australians Collis Birmingham and Martin Dent. 

Kenya's Beijing Olympic marathon champion Wanjiru was fourth in 44:20 and 2004 Athens Olympic marathon gold medallist Baldini finished 11th in 45:42. 

Wanjiru, 23, only arrived in Australia late Friday because of the hospitalisation of his daughter and said his tiredness had affected his form. 

The man tipped to break Haile Gebrselassie's world marathon record next year, he wasn't at his best as he chose to sit in the leading pack rather than aggressively set the tempo out in front. 

"Today was not my day," Wanjiru said. "I can come here to try again (next year), maybe to break the course record or world record for 15km." 

Weidlinger and Birmingham ran away from Wanjiru at the 6.5km mark and the Austrian found something extra to shake off Birmingham just before the 10km mark and didn't look back in the final 5km.