ETHIOPIAN Paralympian Wondiye Fikre Indelbu won Sunday's Aycliffe 10K, limping home to victory wearing only one running shoe.
The 25-year-old Middlesbrough-based asylum seeker was forced to kick off his shoe, which had worked loose, after 6K, and was unable to re-tie his lace because he has only one hand.
Indelbu, who lost an eye and the lower part of his right arm in a hand-grenade attack on his home in Ethiopia when he was nine years old, suffered blisters as he kept running hard to beat two former race winners and eventually limped over the finish line over 100 metres clear.
The African, who was third in the Middlesbrough College Riverside 5K two weeks earlier, won the £100 first prize in a time of 32 mins 18 secs, beating 2010 winner Jim Bulman (New Marske) by 31 seconds, with Durham City Harrier James Askew, winner of the previous two races, a further 22 seconds behind in third place.
The women's race was won by Richmond and Zetland Harrier Shona Fletcher in 38 mins 29 secs, over two minutes clear of New Marske veteran Sharon Bulman in second place.
Men: 1 W Indelbu (Unatt) 32 mins 18 secs; 2 J Bulman (New Marske M40) 32.49; 3 J Askew (Durham City) 33.11; 4 J Clifford (New Marske M40) 33.54; 5 P Flacon (Team Nebraska) 33.57; 6 P Bentley (North York Moors) 33.58; 7 B McMillan (Jarrow & Hebburn) 35.08; 8 T Learoyd (New Marske) 35.18; 9 D Newton (Quakers) 35.59; 10 P Duffy (Heaton) 36.17. M50 G Arthur (South Shields) 38.01; M60 I Bloomfield (Chester-le-Street) 38.19.
Women: 1 S Fletcher (Richmond & Zetland) 38.29; 2 S Bulman (New Marske W35) 40.41; 3 B Caygill (Darlington W35) 41.02; 4 J Keavney (Swaledale W45) 41.18; 5 K Scott (Houghton) 41.54. W55 P Quinn (Sedgefield) 50.11.
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