Johnson races to win in Edinburgh

Johnson put her injury worries behind her to win in style

Australia's Benita Johnson stormed to a convincing victory in the Bupa Great Edinburgh Run.

The 2004 world cross country champion blew away the challenge of Kenya's Rose Cheruiyot by 13 seconds.

Johnson completed the 10 kilometres in 32min 20sec, with Aniko Kalovics of Hungary third.

Bernard Kipyego won the men's race after a sprint finish with Boniface Kiprop, who has now been runner-up three times in the Scottish event.

The Commonwealth 10,000m champion from Uganda, second in 2005 and again 12 months ago, made a strong break just 200 metres from the line but Kipyego followed hot on his tail.

The 21-year-old Kenyan went on to win by three seconds in 28min 59sec, with El Hassan Lahsinni of France just a second behind Kiprop.

Kipyego said: "We decided we would run together before the race and the course was rather harder than I thought it would be."

A disappointed Kiprop said: "I tried to escape in the last 200m but it wasn't to be. One day, I will win this race."

Johnson, who missed four months training during the winter with a knee injury, waited until the halfway point before making a decisive break on a steep hill.

That saw her eventually pull a healthy distance clear of former Amsterdam marathon winner Cheruiyot.

"After my injury, I'm so happy to win here," said Johnson, who was forced to withdraw from last month's London Marathon.

"I put in a lot of hard work before Edinburgh and, over what was a hard course, I'm delighted to see the benefits of that.

"This is a great win for me and, after being out injured for so long when I got very frustrated, this tells me I now have a strong base to build upon towards the Olympics.

"My performance clearly showed I've got strength and I am going forward after being out for so long."