Mara Yamauchi’s bid to become the first British winner since Paula Radcliffe to win the Great North Run yesterday in 2003 ended in disappointment as she could only finish fifth.

The Oxford-born athlete, whose last race was the London Marathon back in April when she finished tenth having endured a six-day journey to get to the capital because of the travel chaos caused by the Icelandic ash cloud, is building up to the New York Marathon in November.

But Yamauchi was unable to live with the pace, and had to settle for fifth behind Ethiopian winner, Berhane Adere and Portuguese duo Ana Dulce Felix and Marisa Barros, who took second and third.

“I was hoping to run a little bit quicker but the main aim for the autumn is the New York Marathon,” said Yamauchi, who is based in Japan.

“That was a really strong field. I didn’t know what to expect from the Portuguese and Spanish girls as a lot of them are track runners. Adere is a really good runner.

“I felt okay, but I was hoping I would have more strength at the end.”

Haile Gebrselassie added another title to his seemingly never-ending list of accolades with a commanding victory in the men’s race.

The 37-year-old Ethiopian, the marathon world-record holder and two-time Olympic 10,000m champion, who was competing in the north-east half-marathon event for the first time, broke away at the halfway point to claim victory well ahead of Kenya’s Kiplimo Kimutai.

Gebrselassie won the 30th running of the event in 59mins 33 secs, well ahead of Kimutai. Morocco’s Jaouad Gharib was third.

Gebrselassie, who has set 26 world records in his career and is rated the greatest distance runner of all time, felt he could have gone faster had he been pushed.

“I was wonderful,” said the four-time world 10,000m champion, who had been due to compete in the Great North Run in 2000, but had to pull out through injury.

“It was great win, this is something very special.”