First winner is back for GNR.

Byline: By Simon Rushworth

Mike McLeod will realise a lifelong dream and start the 2005 Great North Run ( a quarter of a century after he won the inaugural event.

The former Elswick Harrier yesterday accepted a personal invitation from fellow Olympian Brendan Foster to fire the starting gun on September 18.

But an athlete synonymous with the world famous half marathon admitted the days when a partisan crowd could reasonably expect homegrown success are long gone.

Speaking at the official launch for the 2005 run, former Olympic silver medallist McLeod could not disguise his pride at being selected to start this year's event.

However, his joy was tempered with obvious regret that there is no hint of a return to the halcyon days of British middle and long distance running and no chance of domestic glory next month.

"When I won the first Great North Run there was a hard core of homegrown athletes who created a keen competitive sprit and raced against one another regularly," McLeod said. "In 1981 you could put 10 British guys on the start line and any one of them could have taken top honours.

"Now the men's race is dominated by the African guys but there is no real competition within the elite domestic field. I can't see the day when we'll be celebrating another British winner of the Great North Run but there's no easy solution to a disappointing situation."

Chief among the favourites for the men's race this year will be 2004 winner Dejene Berhanu and world half marathon record holder Paul Tergat.

The latter will be attempting a world best time after strong winds hampered his bid to break the one hour barrier in 2001. Behanu, however, will not surrender his title easily and he explained: "It was an honour to become the first Ethiopian winner of the Great North Run and I'm delighted to be coming back to defend my title."

The women's field will be finalised within the next fortnight but race organisers have conceded defeat in their bid to bring last year's popular winner, Benita Johnson, back to Tyneside.

The Australian suffered an alarming loss of form at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki earlier this month and has since been ordered to rest as she seeks to recover from a virus.

The 2004 runner-up, Edith Masai, hopes to capitalise on her rivals' absence but she will face strong competition from Latvia's Jelena Prokopcuka who has already clinched victory in this year's Bupa Great Caledonian Run.

"We have offers on the table to four or five elite African women and we are predicting a typically strong field come September 18," said elite race organiser Matthew Turnbull, who will fly to Brussels later today in order to finalise contracts with several leading athletes.