Kenenisa Bekele held off a late charge from Mo Farah to win a thrilling Great North Run on Sunday.

The Ethiopian, running his first competitive half marathon, made the break with a mile to go on the course across Newcastle and South Shields and looked to be heading for a comfortable win.

But the double Olympic and world champion began to chase down the leader over the last 400m and was on the heels of Bekele as the finishing line approached, but was unable to find the extra speed needed to pass his opponent.

That left Bekele to cross the line first in an unofficial time of 60min 8sec, with Farah just one second behind. Distance great Haile Gebrselassie was third.

The pre-race buildup had been all about the contest between Farah, Bekele and Gebrselassie, who boast 12 world titles and seven Olympic golds between them, and it did not disappoint as the trio quickly took off from the start line on the A167 in Newcastle and remained glued together for the next 12 miles.

Despite the appalling conditions, with all the runners battling wind and persistent rain, the lead group pushed each other along until one mile from the finish in South Shields.

Bekele then chose a steep slope on the course to make his break, leaving Farah and Gebrselassie in his wake. The Briton managed to maintain a consistent gap to the leader, but the pace became too much for the 40-year-old Gebrselassie, who soon dropped off.

At that point, the race looked to be Bekele’s until Farah made a spirited push, showing gritted teeth in a desperate attempt to snatch victory in front of his home support.

However, the Ethiopian was wise to the danger and did just enough to stay ahead of his rival, crossing the line with a slight smile of triumph across his face.

Farah had no complaints afterwards and said there was no shame in losing out to such an illustrious rival.

“It was a good race, a great finish,” Farah told the BBC. “When Kenenisa went with a mile to go I thought the pace was just ridiculous. I thought I’d come back and close the gap slowly and I managed to close a little bit, but you can’t take away what he has. He has great speed and it came down to the last 200 metres and right to the line, but it was a great race and Haile did most of the work and kept pushing and pushing.

“My main preparation was for the World Championships so I only had two to three weeks preparing for this race. But at the same time I am disappointed to finish second. But I didn’t just finish second, I finished second to a great athlete. Now I’ll take my break, go on holiday and get ready for the London Marathon.”

Bekele, who has battled his way back from injury, was understandably proud of his achievement. “It was amazing. Since before the World Championships I was concentrating on training hard. I’m feeling confident, I trained well and in the end I did it,” he said.

The women’s race was also enthralling, with Kenya’s Priscah Jeptoo finishing just four seconds shy of the course record to come home first in 65min 44sec. Pre-race favourites Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba, both of Ethiopia, had to settle for second and third place, respectively.

British Paralympian David Weir was the winner of the men’s wheelchair race, his fourth victory at the Great North Run, in a time of 43min 03sec.

Compatriot Shelly Woods landed her fifth Great North title in the women’s wheelchair.