Fish clocks up PB at Great North Run

10:25pm Wednesday 3rd October 2007

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BEN FISH has set a half-marathon personal best of 66:57 at the Great North Run on Sunday.

The Blackburn Harrier matched exactly the time of Kara Goucher, the American woman who defeated Paula Radcliffe to set the fastest time in the world for a woman this year. He was 18th in the elite men's race.

Accrington Road Runner Sarah Ridehalgh broke her own club record with 1:23:12 and was shown on the television coverage having earned a place in the elite women's field which started earlier than the men.

Blackpool's Shelly Woods won the women's wheelchair race in 50:36.

Elsewhere, Chorley Harriers Dominic and Nicola Raby were among the 40,000 competitors in the 34th Berlin Marathon in which Haile Gebrselassie broke the World Record.

The Ethiopian clocked 2:04:26 to improve Paul Tergat's mark by 27 seconds, while Nicola also set a personal best of 3:21:57 to finish 187th woman.

Dominic was satisfied with his 2:52:28 in spite of having a difficult time after 20 miles.

Three Harriers travelled to Canada for the Toronto Waterside Marathon which started in the darkness of early morning to avoid the midday heat.

Mark Ellithorn had a fantastic run to claim 47th spot from over 2000 runners, claiming a personal best over the distance.

His finishing time of 2:52:23 was also enough to scoop the prize of fourth male in the Vet40 category. Ian Crabtree had trained very hard for this event and was pleased with 154th position overall in 3.13.49.

The ever-improving Shane Cliffe completed the Chorley trio with a steady effort for 301st place in 3.29.31.