Portsmouth athlete Teuten dreams of future Great South Run glory

Portsmouth athlete Alex Teuten, white vest, just behind Chris Thompson at the start of the Great South Run

The City of Portsmouth athlete was fifth Brit and seventh overall with his superb time of 49min 22sec.

He finished one minute 59 seconds adrift of the winner Chris Thompson and was only 15 seconds behind Great Britain Olympian Scott Overall who crossed the line sixth.

Teuten, 24, is nine years younger than the vastly-experienced Thompson.

And he clearly will be encouraged by his proximity to the international athletes at the front of the race.

The Portsmouth athlete is currently focusing on his main ambition to earn a Great Britain cross-country vest.

But he would love to one day take the Great South Run title.

Teuten said: ‘It would be brilliant to win the Great South Run.

‘You do have these sort of ambitions to win the big races. You do think about it.

‘I have never even won the junior race. I finished second one year.

‘So it would be great to win the senior race. Especially with it being my home race.

‘It’s tough because the competition is so very high.

‘Winning the Great South Run is not my highest priority at the moment but a few years down the line maybe.’

Teuten has been called up to represent England in Spain later this month when he will be in the team for the Burgos international cross-country.

That came after his superb Great South Run performance.

Teuten was pleased with his outing in Portsmouth but felt an even quicker time was within reach based on his form in training.

He said: ‘The race went well. It’s nice for me being so close to my home and I know the roads so well.

‘I know where it’s going to be tough and it helps me prepare quite well.

‘It was a windy day, so mile six and seven were tough around the back of the golf course.

‘I knew I would lose a bit of time there.

‘But when we turned back onto the seafront we had the wind in our favour and I used that to my advantage.

‘It wasn’t quite the time I was hoping for actually.

‘I was thinking about 48.30, or 49.00, I felt I was in that sort of shape based on training.

‘But you have to factor in conditions on the day and the wind did slow things down in places.

‘It was a lot better than last year for me, though.

‘I ran it in 50.15 then but I had a trapped nerve in my back so I wasn’t feeling great.’

Teuten is in the four-strong England team for the second year in succession for the Cross de Atapuerca race in Burgos, northern Spain, on Saturday, November 13.