Ramaala ends the Kenyan run

The Kenyan stranglehold on the Bupa Great North Run was finally loosened yesterday as the record field of 36,000, the highest for a road race in Europe, snaked its way along the half-marathon route from Newcastle to the shore of the North Sea at South Shields.

It was not, however, one of the fancied home runners who halted the succession of Kenyan victories at six. Jon Brown and Paul Evans were obliged to feed off crumbs of consolatory comfort as Hendrick Ramaala feasted on South Africa's first success.

It was a win for the 25-year-old law graduate to savour. He toyed with the two Kenyans, Willy Cheruiyot and Sammy Korir, who drew clear with him in the last four miles, taunting them with sporadic surges before finally leaving them trailing as helpless also rans as he cruised into top gear three-quarters-of-a-mile from the line.

Ramaala, 14th in the 10,000m final at the World Championships in Athens last month, finished 16 seconds clear of Cheruiyot in 60min 25sec. But his tour de force on Tyneside did not fuel hopes of success in the world half-marathon championship race in Kosice on 4 October.

"In a team race the Kenyans always help each other," he said. "They are brothers. There will be five of them in Kosice and that gives you big, big problems."

It was Brown, who beat Ramaala in the Durham cross country international last December and in the Hengelo 10,000m race in May, who suffered the biggest problems among the leading contenders yesterday. Stricken by stomach cramps, the European cross-country champion had to settle for sixth position, two places and 31sec behind the first Briton, Paul Evans, whom he challenges in the Chicago Marathon next month.

Marian Sutton, like Evans, returns to the Windy City as defending champion and she will do so in confident mood after talking a clutch of prized scalp in the women's section yesterday. Kenyan Lucia Subano proved too strong for the solicitor's secretary from East Looe in the last three miles but Sutton took the runners-up spot ahead of Liz McColgan, beaten on the roads by a fellow-Brit for the first time in four years, and the reigning world cross-country champion, Deratu Tulu of Ethiopia.

"Marian ran a tremendous race," McColgan graciously said. "It's good to see her coming through." Sutton emerged through the 70-minute barrier too, missing Andrea Wallace's English record by a tantalising two seconds with a time of 69min 41sec.