Teenager Charlotte Purdue underlined her incredible potential with a runaway victory over vastly more experienced opponents in the SPAR Great Ireland run today.
The 19-year-old won the 10-kilometre contest in a time of 32 minutes and 42 seconds, 21 seconds clear of second-placed Gemma Steel with Nadia Ejjafini third in 33mins 09secs.
Morocco-born Ejjafini, who competes for Italy, set a testing early pace which proved too much for pre-race favourite Berhane Adere of Ethiopia, who fell away after seven kilometres. Hungary's Anita Kalovics equally found the speed too much to handle.
Purdue made her move with a razor-sharp turn of speed and took charge of the contest for the final two kilometres.
The Aldershot club runner said: 'The course was easier than I thought and it wasn't the plan to break away like that.
'At 5km I felt as if I was jogging and then at 8km I could hear everyone around me breathing heavily, so I just went.'
Jesus Espana, the 2006 European 5,000 metres gold medallist, produced a lethal finish in the final 1200 metres to clinch the men's title in a time of 29:26 ahead of Finland's Jussi Utriainen and Martin Fagan, who was third.
Just over 11,000 people - including many celebrity runners - took part in the race, enjoying the beautiful sunshine in the Phoenix Park, Dublin today.
The Run is the only event in Ireland recognised by the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) at Bronze Label level.
As a result of the quality of this year’s event, the organisers will be submitting an application to the IAAF for Silver Label status for the 2012 SPAR Great Ireland Run as they believe that all the required criteria may have been achieved to upgrade from bronze.
