Gothenburg Half Marathon, 13th May 2006
SUMMER time in Sweden? You've got to be kidding! Stubbington's Tor Duffin joined more than 26,000 runners who braved chilly conditions to complete in the Gothenburg Half Marathon last weekend.
Despite a cold breeze, crowds once again packed the streets in the bright sunshine for last Saturday's event.
Forty-year-old Slovenian Helena Javornik lived up to expectations and powered to victory in the women's race in 1hr 12min 34sec, just over a minute ahead of rapidly improving Swede Anna Rahm, with last year's Kenyan winner, Susan Kirui, in third.
The men's pre-race favourite also prevailed to lead a Moroccan clean sweep of the podium places. Abdelkader El Mouaziz, one of the fastest marathon runners in history, showed his class at the half distance, winning in 1:02.14 ahead of younger brother Abdelhahid, and fellow countryman Abdelkebir Lamachi.
His win was not without controversy, however. El Mouaziz was part of the leading group of seven which unwittingly took a shortcut of some 80m just before the half way point.
Estonian Pavel Loskutov, the first runner to take the correct route, was eventually 5th but was fuming at the end and claimed victory for himself as he crossed the line. Finishing 1min 40sec off the pace, he later admitted he probably wouldn't have stayed with the Moroccan, but was nonetheless compensated for his protests.
As for Tor, he took the correct route and was pleased to get round in a personal best time of 1:16.53. That gave him 89th overall, and took 42 seconds off his previous best 13.1-miler, which was set at the White Horse Marathon in Wantage, Oxfordshire, in March, where Tor finished fourth.
Photo courtesy www.goteborgsvarvet.com