Athletics: Tracey turns up the heat

Jul 28 2007 by Our Correspondent, Western Mail

OLYMPIAN Tracey Morris flew into Cardiff for tomorrow’s Western Mail-backed BUPA Great Welsh Run after warm weather training in the middle of summer!

And she may go back to Lanzarote after Wales’ debut on the Great Run series to prepare further for her biggest race of the year.

Morris is trying to get used to the heat and humidity she will face in Osaka, Japan, next month after being pre-selected to race for Britain in the world championships marathon.

So, after landing at 6am yesterday and admitting to being a bit jaded from training, the 39-year-old North Walian expects to be waving away some of the biggest names around on the first few miles of tomorrow’s 10km course around Cardiff Bay.

Morris’ main opposition will come in the form of Ethiopia’s former 10,000 metres world champion Berhane Adere, Morocco’s 2004 Rotterdam Marathon champion Zhor El Kamch plus Britain’s top-ranked half-marathon athlete this year Liz Yelling.

Osaka this year and then possibly the Beijing Olympics in 12 months are her main aims and she said, “I need to get used to these hot and humid conditions. I would have stayed here, but unfortunately I didn’t know what the weather would do in the next couple of weeks.

“And, if it is raining again in the next few weeks, I’m almost tempted to go back.”

Morris has been in top form this year, though, winning the Jane Tomlinson 10miler in Leeds and, before that, a big race in Spain. She added, “I ran for Wales in the Barcelona 10K in March and won that which was a good weekend.”

In the men’s race, Kenfig Hill-born London Marathon winner Jon Brown leads the British charge against a formidable Kenyan presence.

The biggest threat is Sammy Korir, who has won seven marathons and finished just a second behind countryman Paul Tergat when he broke the world record.

Double world cross country silver medallist Patrick Ivuti, rising name Francis Kibiwott and John Mutai make up the Kenyan quartet out to steal the title from Brown.

Brown, The 36-year-old Welshman, who now lives in British Columbia, Canada, and finished fourth in both the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games, is looking to quit the sport after Beijing, but wants to make an impression tomorrow after health problems recently.

He said, “I’ve been progressing and getting fitter gradually. I don’t think I’m in top shape yet so I need this race to bring me on a bit more. It will be a good run against hard guys, but I don’t expect to beat them.”

Former world record holder Steve Jones, from Newport and now 52, has flown from Boulder, Colorado, to run in his first event in Wales for years alongside his god-daughter, while Welsh Athletics director Steve Brace, a former Olympian himself, is putting his shoes on again tomorrow among the expected 7,000 other runners.