Jo Pavey bounces back from illness, wins Bupa London 10,000 2015

Pavey, following her victory at the Bupa London 10k 2015

Champion British long-distance runner Jo Pavey has taken the title at the Bupa London 10,000 for the second time. Pavey, a four time Olympian, has represented Great Britain at every Olympics from 2000 to 2012.

Sick the previous night from an undisclosed illness, Pavey only decided to run at the last minute following a warm-up the morning of the race, when she said that her legs felt ‘kind of okay’. Starting off uneasily, she picked up momentum as the race progressed. She had a 23-second lead over her second-place competitor Rebecca Murray, and 31 seconds over 3^rd placed Faye Fullterton.

Pavey last held the same title 4 years ago, in 2011. She spoke at length about how she was feeling, mentioning that she had been vomiting violently the night prior to the race, was cold and covered in spots. She mentioned managing the 10k on only a single bowl of porridge, but that she regained her composure with the final 3k to go and soldiered on.

She finished the race in 32:56, beating her time at the Great Manchester Run earlier this year by 35 seconds.

Pavey is the distance champion for the 2012 European Championship silver medallist in the 10,000 m and a two-time 5000 m medallist at the Commonwealth Games, winning silver in Melbourne 2006 and bronze in Glasgow 2014. The oldest female European champion in history, she won the 10,000m gold at the European Championships in 2014 at the age of 40 years 11 months – 10 months after the birth of her son.

She finished the road race, held through the streets of London, ahead of the current junior English cross-country champion, Rebecca Murray. The men's race was won by Andy Vernon, 29, who reached his personal best of 28:38 and said he felt ‘in control’ throughout the race.