Kadar Omar, who fled Ethiopia as a child and later ran for the Refugee Team at the 2017 World Championships, won the men’s race in Portsmouth while Hannah Irwin edged out defending champion Verity Ockenden by three seconds.

Kadar Omar and Hannah Irwin were crowned UK 10-mile champions on Sunday after winning the elite races at the AJ Bell Great South Run in Portsmouth, which again hosted the UK Athletics 10-Mile Championships.

Omar, of Birchfield Harriers, took his first Great South Run title in 47:26, finishing 24 seconds clear of Andy Butchart of Central AC, who clocked 47:50. Alex Durant of City of Sheffield & Dearne AC was third in 48:00.

The women’s race was closely contested for most of the course before Irwin, of Cambridge & Coleridge AC, prevailed in 53:34. Ockenden, of Swansea Harriers, was just three seconds behind in 53:37, with Daisy Glover of Framlingham Flyers third in 54:53.

Omar’s route to the top of the podium in Portsmouth has been far from straightforward. A native of Ethiopia, he fled the country aged 13 with his uncle and brother and spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya. He went on to run the 5000m for the Refugee Team at the 2017 World Championships in London, where he met his idol Mo Farah, and has since settled in Britain, training with Birchfield Harriers in Birmingham. Last year he was named among the refugee athletes supported by an IOC Olympic Solidarity scholarship.

Now a British citizen, Omar won the UK half-marathon title at the Big Half in London last month, clocking 1:01:51 to beat three-time winner Jack Rowe. Running, he has said, “saved me and got me integrated into society”.

Irwin was born in Cambridge and represents Northern Ireland, for whom she holds the 10km and half-marathon records. She lowered the 10km mark to 31:32 in Valencia in January and finished third in the UK 10,000m Championships in Loughborough in May, behind Izzy Fry and Poppy Tank.

Ockenden, who is coached by three-time Great South Run winner Chris Thompson, won her first UK 10-mile title last year after previously finishing second and third in the race. This year she took silver in the UK 10km road championships at the Great Manchester Run. She ran three minutes faster on Sunday than her winning time of 56:37 in 2025, when conditions were wet and windy, but could not hold off Irwin.

Butchart, making his Great South Run debut, is a two-time Olympian over 5000m, at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Back in form after injury this year, he won 5000m silver at the UK Championships and ran a half-marathon PB of 1:01:45 in Barcelona – a time that puts him second on the Scottish all-time list.

Paul Foster, chief executive of The Great Run Company, said: “We saw a great line-up of British athletes today which made for thrilling battles for both the men’s and women’s titles this year.” He added that the winners join “a veritable roll call of British previous winners”.

The Great South Run, first held in 1990, has a long list of British winners. Liz McColgan won in 1995 and 1997, Paula Radcliffe in 2008 and Farah in 2009, while Thompson claimed three successive titles from 2016 to 2018. Marc Scott, the UK champion last year in 47:21, also won in 2019. Liz McColgan’s daughter Eilish won three times, in 2018, 2019 and 2021, and her 50:43 on the last occasion remains the women’s course record and a European 10-mile best. The men’s course record is 45:15, set by Joseph Ebuya of Kenya in 2010.

The 36th staging of the event formed part of Portsmouth’s celebrations of 100 years of city status. Organisers said 26,000 runners of all ages took part over the weekend, which included the Great South 5K on Saturday.

UK 10-Mile Championships, Portsmouth
Men: 1 Kadar Omar (Birchfield) 47:26; 2 Andy Butchart (Central) 47:50; 3 Alex Durant (City of Sheffield & Dearne) 48:00
Women: 1 Hannah Irwin (Cambridge & Coleridge) 53:34; 2 Verity Ockenden (Swansea) 53:37; 3 Daisy Glover (Framlingham Flyers) 54:53