Ireland's Richard Donovan was Race Director at the highly successful Commonwealth 100km Championships on 19 September 2009.
The event was the first ever Commonwealth Championships at 100km and was staged at Keswick in the Lake District of Cumbria, England.
Despite some very steep inclines over the initial 15km, the race produced some truly world class performances.
In the men's event, England's Jez Bragg - winner of the Celtic 100k in Galway in March - produced a late surge to overtake compatriot Matt Giles to win in a time of 7:04:01. England had a clean sweep in the men's division with Giles finishing second in a time of 7:05:28 and Matthew Lynas, who led for much of the race, coming home in 7:09:52 for third position. The Australians Terence Bell and Tim Cochrane, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, helped to secure team silver for Australia while Scotland finished third.
Australia's Jackie Fairweather dominated the women's race to win a time of 7:41:23. Fairweather, a two-time World Triathlon Champion and former bronze medallist in the Commonwealth Games Marathon, finished more than 20 minutes ahead of England's Emma Gooderham (8:04:09) with Scotland's Lucy Colquhoun (8:19:45) securing third place. England won the team title ahead of Sotland and Canada.
In addition to the 100km event, there were also inaugural Commonwealth Championships at 24-Hours and at Mountain Running. The 24-Hour men's individual title was won by Australia's Martin Fryer with a world class 255.934km. Jo Blake (AUS) took second place with 249.106km while John Pares from Wales was third with 244.377km. In the women's event, England's Sharon Gayter covered 226.489km to take the individual title ahead of team mate Vicky Skelton (212.683km) and Australia's Susannah Harvery Jamieson (206.979km).
Among the other highlights was the performance of Kenya's Wilson Chemweno in winning the uphill mountain race ahead of five-time world champion Jonathon Wyatt of New Zealand. Chemweno also won the Up and Down Race.
It is now anticipated that ultra running will be introduced to the Commonwealth Games by 2018 and then the Olympic Games.
Photo courtesy of Stuart Holmes.
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