Olympic Gold Medallist and former World Champion, Christine Ohuruogu MBE kicks off Great Newham London Run
Olympic Gold Medallist and former World Champion Christine Ohuruogu MBE started the Great Newham London Run.
The 10km run alongside the Family Run 2km saw 15,000 runners become some of the first to run on the new track in the former Olympic Stadium.
Christine, who was brought up less than a mile from the Stadium and is set to run for Great Britain at the Rio 2016 Games in a few weeks, was an Honorary Starter for this year’s Run alongside the Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, and inspirational 8-year-old Rio Woolf.
She was supporting the Great Run Company and Newham council’s drive to get more people active and was proud to be involved with the event. She commented:
More than 11,000 people took part in the 10km Great Newham London Run and 3,500 children and parents ran in the 2km Family Run, organised by the Great Run Company in partnership with Newham Council.
Both runs looped around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park before giving runners the only opportunity to run into the Stadium and cross the finish line where Mo Farah and Jess Ennis-Hill won gold in 2012.
Among these runners were 1,500 Newham residents who were able to take advantage of the 1,000 free places in the 10K and 500 free places in the Family Run.
Rio Woolf had the opportunity to test his new running blade on the new track, taking part in the family run with his parents, before heading to the Rio 2016 Paralympics as a guest of the organisers.
James Denne, 30, from Honiton in Devon was the first male finisher across the line in 32 minutes 44 seconds.
Rio was born with a deficiency in his lower right leg and underwent an amputation at 14 months of age. He has a new running blade which he was thrilled about using on the new super-fast track.
The first female runner across the line was Katie White, 35, representing Garscube Harriers, Glasgow, who finished in 36 minutes and 31 seconds.
Entries are already open for next year’s Great Newham London Run on Sunday 2 July at www.greatrun.org/London where this year’s results are also available.