ETHIOPIAN asylum seeker and Paralympics silver-medallist Wondiye Fikre Indelbu added the Taylor-Wimpey Tees Pride 10K to his growing list of North-East road race victories.
The 26-year-old Middlesbrough-based athlete, who lost an eye and part of his right arm in a hand-grenade attack on his home when he was a boy, clocked exactly 31 minutes as he ran out a comfortable winner, 50 seconds ahead of Morpeth Harrier Adrian Whitwam.
Still running as an unattached athlete, Indelbu, who won the Darlington 10K earlier in the month for a second successive year, was third in the Tees Pride race last year and this was his seventh victory on the region’s roads this year.
Middlesbrough Mandale’s Josephine Stone, who was 24 the previous week, gave herself a belated birthday present by winning the women’s race at the fifth attempt, having finished second last year. She clocked 35 mins 41 secs, beating Pocklington’s prolific road racer Helen Cross by 35 seconds.
Results – Men: 1 W Indelbu (Unatt) 31.00; 2 A Whitwam (Morpeth) 31.50; 3 F McNally (Brighton Phoenix) 31.52; 4 J Bulman (New Marske M40) 31.57; 5 K Calvert (Sunderland) 32.43; 6 J Willis (Middlesbrough & Cleveland) 33.29; 7 I Twaddle (North Shields Poly M40) 33.40; 8 S Brown (Tyne Bridge) 33.47; 9 T Scott (Tyne Bridge M40) 33.51; 10K Smith (Tyne Bridge M50) 33.52.
Women: 1 J Stone (Middlesbrough Mandale) 35.41; 2 H Cross (Pocklington) 36.16; 3 E Holt (Morp) 37.35; 4 J Hodgson (Morp) 38.28; 5 L Stockdale (Esk Valley) 38.42. W35 K Simpson (Unatt) 41.15; W45 K Neesam (New Marske) 39.14.