Great South Run: Winners of elite men and women's races announced as fastest runners cross finish line

The annual race event kicked off this morning (October 15) at 10.15am with runners from the Elite Female category cheered on by crowds as they left the starting line. The day’s races started following a good luck message from Portsmouth’s lord mayor councillor Tom Coles and further waves of runners – including wheelchair users and partially sighted competitors – followed throughout the morning.

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This year’s Elite Female winner was Lily Partridge from the Birchfield Harriers who also won the race last year. Lily finished in 54 minutes and four seconds.

Speaking after crossing the finish line, Lily said: “It was a little bit of a relief because my legs felt really tired coming into the race so I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to go. The first 5-10k was really slow, so to be able to potentially run a P.B. at the end was a really big confidence booster. There’s a strength there for longer distances which is my next focus.

Lily, who is from Farnham, added that she was also relieved to be greeted by sunshine following poor weather earlier in the week. She has completed the Great South Run on at least four previous occassions and added that is feels like a really local race to her.

The Elite Male race was won by Zakariya Mahamed from Southampton FC, who completed the route in 46 minutes and 41 seconds. Zakariya’s win came in his second attempt at the race.

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Speaking after the win, Zakariya said: “It feels very good. In my mind was ‘just go for it’. I know I am in good shape but from the gun to the tape I was literally just leading. I know I have put in a lot of work so I am really happy that that has paid off.

“From start to finish, the atmosphere was really good – the support around the course was crazy.”

The full league table of results for this year’s Great South Run will be available in the print edition of The News.