Sydney  - Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie ran away with the inaugural HBA Great Australian Run in Melbourne on Sunday.

The 35-year-old middle-distance maestro left Kenyan Patrick Makau at the 11-kilometre mark to finish the 15-kilometre race in 42 minutes and 40 seconds. Australian amateur Collis Birmingham came in third behind Makau.

Olympic marathon champion Constantine Dita of Romania started favourite in the women's section, but could only manage sixth.

Kenya's Catherine Ndereba, twice an Olympic marathon silver medalist, finished ahead of New Zealand's Alice Mason and Australia's Lisa Weightman in a time of 50:43.

The 15-kilometre world record in the men's division is 41:29. It was set by Kenyan Felix Limo in 2001.

The race around the streets of Australia's second-biggest city was Gebrselassie's first outing since becoming the first person to break two hours and four minutes in the
42.2-kilometre marathon. He improved his own world record with a 2:03.59 in Berlin in September.

The 10,000-metre gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics is hoping to set a new marathon record when he runs in Dubai in January.

"I don't know which one I'll break next - maybe the marathon or the half-marathon," he said.

Gebrselassie complained of jet lag before the race, but easily ran away from half-marathon specialist Makau.

"After 11 kilometres I decided to stop (Makau) there, otherwise it was just too dangerous if I brought him up to the last kilometre," he said.

The ever-smiling Ethiopian set his first world record in 1994, running 12.56:96 for the 5,000 metres. He was sixth in the 10,000 metres at the Beijing Olympics.

The Melbourne race is part of a series that also runs in England, Ireland and Ethiopia. (dpa)