FORMER world mile record holder and Olympic bronze medalist Derek Ibbotson MBE will send the hundreds of athletes in Sunday's Dewsbury 10K Road Race on their way at 9am.
The athletes will travel from all parts of the country for the race, which is organised by the Dewsbury Road Runners. The event is known for its quick times and relatively flat terrain.
It starts and finishes on the ring road outside Highgate Bed
s and runners are asked to be there by 8.45am.
Mr Ibbotson, from Huddersfield, ran 5,000m, 3,000m and the mile on the track as well as taking part in road and cross country races.
He broke the world mile record in 1957, finishing in three minutes 57.2 seconds, a year after he won an Olympic bronze medal in Melbourne in the 5,000m race.
He also has the distinction of running the first exact four minute mile, clocking four minutes dead when finishing fourth in a race at White City in 1958.
Sunday’s race will mean the eastbound carriageway of the ring road, between Bradford Road and Leeds Road, will be closed from 7am, as will the northbound carriageway from Webster Hill to Halifax Road, from the same time.
The route of the race will be along Bradford Road through Batley to Birstall, returning the same way to the starting point.
Last year Matt Bowser, a GB international from Lincoln Wellington, won the race in 30 minutes 28 seconds.
n Dewsbury Road Runners took part in the West Yorkshire Winter Cross Country League last Sunday at Pudsey.
Men.
9th Mark Oldroyd 31mins 35secs, 11th Andrew Cottier 32.01, 17th John Calvert 32:33, 18th Jimmy Morris 32:46, 21st Andrew Meskimmon 33.01, 26th Keith Long 33.53, 32nd Peter Hill 34.29, 45th Ian Sutcliffe 36.24, 61st Richard Aiston 38.22, 68th David Binns 39.15, 72nd Paul Conway 39.41, 77th Martin Kaye 40.27, 96th Phil Berry 45.57.
Women
10th Flora Skidmore 38.07, 12th Maxine Worden 39.15, 16th Fiona Sutcliffe 40.54, 32nd Liz Smith-Calvert 46:14, 36th Heather Mitchell 48:16, 38th Janet Murnin 50.42.
