See this Running Times Interview by Adam Bean with Zimbabwean Winner Collen Makaza.. Adam Bean was on location in Galway.
Collen Makaza (ZIM) and Sue Harrison (GBR) brought home gold at the 2nd IAU 50km World Trophy Final contested in Galway, Ireland on 29th August 2010.
Galway, Ireland was the host of the 2nd IAU 50km World Trophy Final. This city situated on the west coast of Ireland is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. It is a short 2 hour drive from Dublin.
The race was organised on two half marathon loops followed by four short loops around the centre of the city to complete the 50km. The course is undulating but with lengthy flat sections. The most challenging part of the course was a hill present at 13km (and again at 34km) that was a kilometre long. The race was run concurrently with the first Galway City Marathon and Half marathon races.
Runners took advantage of teen temperatures on race day to clock some of the fastest 50km times of the year. As a result the race lived up to its pre-race billing of being one of the fastest 50k start lists ever assembled.
Colleen Makazwa (ZIM) was the winner of the men's division at the 2nd edition of this race. For two-thirds of the run, the competition was a three-person race with Makaza, Sandile Ngunuzza (RSA) and Joseph Mphuthi (RSA) sharing the workload in the front, until Makaza made the decisive move at 34kms and placed himself solely at the front. Ngunuzza finished 2nd followed by Michael Wardian (USA), last year’s bronze medalist who had an outstanding second half of the race.
Makaza ran a time of 2:47:22 to grab the top honours. Ngunuzza finished the run in 2:53:06 and Wardian crossed the line in 2:54:56.
In the women's race 2:38 marathoner, Sue Harrison (GBR) came out on top. She had a strong lead after the first 5km and never relinquished it running consistently through quite a difficult course. She was followed into the finish line by Mary Coordt (USA) and pre-race favourite Irene Kalter (NED).
Harrison ran 3:15:43 to take the gold medal in a very competitive field. Coordt did a time of 3:28:31 to take silver and Kalter had 3:34:21 to bring home the bronze medal.
There were thirteen selection races held from Canada and Argentina to Japan and Australia to select athletes for the World Trophy Final. The winners of the series races were automatically selected and following the preliminary selections the fastest finishers were invited until the selection pool was filled. In addition a few runners had invitations extended on the basis of their marathon times.
| WORLD 50KM TROPHY FINAL RESULTS | |||
| MEN | |||
| Place | Name | Country | Time |
| 1 | Collen Makaza | ZIM | 02:47:22 |
| 2 | Sandile Ngunuzza | RSA | 02:53:06 |
| 3 | Michael Wardian | USA | 02:54:56 |
| 4 | Kaito Iwayama | JPN | 02:56:19 |
| 5 | Lucas Nonyana | RSA | 02:56:57 |
| 6 | Malcolm Campbell | USA | 02:58:19 |
| 7 | Joseph Mphuthi | RSA | 03:02:40 |
| 8 | Marco Boffo | ITA | 03:06:54 |
| 9 | Evgenii Glyva | UKR | 03:09:11 |
| 10 | Julian Rendall | GBR | 03:09:19 |
| 11 | Daniel Oralek | CZE | 03:10:15 |
| 12 | Ben Nephew | USA | 03:10:19 |
| 13 | Paul Fernandez | GBR | 03:13:01 |
| 14 | Ralf Preibish | NED | 03:13:10 |
| 15 | Andrea Anselmi | ITA | 03:17:14 |
| 16 | John Byrne | IRL | 03:19:00 |
| 17 | Tim Doran | GBR | 03:20:17 |
| 18 | Daniel Verrington | USA | 03:21:15 |
| 19 | Malcolm Gamble | AUS | 03:47:07 |
| 20 | Michael O'Loughlin | IRL | 03:49:05 |
| 21 | Colman Greene | IRL | 04:05:02 |
| 22 | Peter Osbourne | IRL | 04:22:15 |
| 23 | Aidan Blake | IRL | 04:39:23 |
| 24 | Roy Pirrung | USA | 04:43:00 |
| WOMEN | |||
| Place | Name | Country | Time |
| 1 | Sue Harrison | GBR | 03:15:43 |
| 2 | Mary Coordt | USA | 03:28:31 |
| 3 | Irene Kalter | NED | 03:34:21 |
| 4 | Helen Taranowski | GBR | 03:37:43 |
| 5 | Adela Salt | GBR | 03:40:09 |
| 6 | Karen Rushton | GBR | 03:41:47 |
| 7 | June Petrie | AUS | 03:42:18 |
| 8 | Lesley Train | RSA | 03:45:25 |
| 9 | Paola Sanna | ITA | 03:46:10 |
| 10 | Tressa Lindenberg | AUS | 03:55:15 |
| 11 | Jen Salter | GBR | 04:12:53 |
Copyright 2009-2012 Richard Donovan / UltraRunning Ireland. All rights reserved.