(18/09/2005)

Ethiopia's Deratu Tulu has won the women's elite race at the 25th anniversary of the BUPA Great North Run in Newcastle.

Tulu blew away her rivals with a quick early pace and broke away from from her compatriots Worknesh Kidane and Berhane Adere on a fast downhill section at nine miles.

The former two-time Olympic 10,000m champion came home in 1:07:03 to become the first Ethiopian woman to win the event.

Watch BBC Video Highlights: BUPA Great North Run 2005 (Requires windows media player)

Kidane was overtaken by Latvia's Jelena Prokopcuka in the last mile but fought back to take second in 68:09. The Latvian finished third in 68:11.

Tulu said: "I thought it would be a much harder race.

"It has always been my ambition to win this event. I have tried two or three times before but on this occasion I knew I was coming into the race injury-free."

Tardesse record

Eritrea's Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Zersenay Tadesse also set a new world best for the half-marathon as he destroyed a class field to win the men's elite race.

The Eritrean hijacked pre-race favourite Dejene Berhanu's record mission and kept accelerating through the later stages to win in a time of 59:05.

Tadesse's winning time was a second quicker than Paul Tergat's previous world half-marathon best.

But it will not count as a world record because the course loses too much elevation over its 13.1 miles, but he still earned an extra $10,000 for the record.

Tadesse said: "I expected to beat my personal best but not the World record."

Ethiopian Dejene Berhanu settled for second in 60:44 and South Africa's Hendrick Ramaala was third in 62:25.