Commonwealth 10,000metre bronze medallist Liz Yelling candidly admitted the super-fast pace in today's BUPA Great Manchester Run killed her off just three kilometres after the start.

That was not surprising as Berhane Adere, the inaugural 10km race winner three years ago, regained the title when setting an Ethiopian and meeting record of 31 minutes seven seconds.

Her compatriot Gete Wami was just six seconds behind, also smashing the previous mark of 31:30 ran just three weeks ago by Ayalew Yimer.

Yelling, a determined 11th finisher against a world class field, was first Briton home as ahead of her there were a spate of national records.

Natalya Berkut in third position lowered the Ukrainian mark to 31:14 while three seconds behind her, Benita Johnson sliced 11 seconds from her recently set Australian record.

New York marathon champion Jelena Prokopcuka who was fifth, Beata Rakonczai sixth and Sinret Sultan eighth, also lowered the Latvian, Hungarian and Eritrean records.

"I'm not surprised so many ran so quickly, they were all flying from the very beginning of the race - it was much too fast for me," said Yelling who crossed the line in 32:55.

The Bedford star, who had been fighting to remain in the leading pack of nine, added: "I tried to stay with them for as long as possible as I didn't want to be running on my own in a vacuum.

"But there was no way I could keep up the pace," she admitted as the leaders churned out speedy initial kilometre splits of just over three minutes.

Adere's finishing speed in the end eventually won her the day - although beforehand she did not even believe she was in shape to win the race, never mind clock a lifetime best.

"I didn't feel brilliant before coming here and I wasn't sure at all how I would perform," said Adere, just a month ago after smashing Wami's national record in the Flora London Marathon.

Adere added: "It was a tough race with plenty of people around until well past the halfway mark. I found the longer I ran the better I felt."

The men's event was almost as spectacular with the three top finishers also breaking the Eritrean, Tanzanian and Ugandan records.

A fierce burst of finishing speed carried Zersenay Tadesse to the second fastest 10km ever seen on British soil, when holding off the challenge of Fabiano Joseph and Boniface Kiprop.

Joseph, winner of the BUPA Great Edinburgh Run over the same distance a fortnight ago, survived until Tadesse unleashed a fabulous sprint 400m from the line, to win by five seconds in 27:36.

Kiprop, who was winner of the Commonwealth 10,000m gold medal in March, wilted in the final kilometre, but still finished third in a very impressive 27:58.

"That was a hard race, particularly the last couple of kilometres," said the Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist.

"They didn't make it easy for me, but I enjoy a tough fight," said Tadesse who finished runner-up two years ago when setting his previous Eritrean record of 27:59.

Tadesse admitted all three thought beforehand there was the possibility of breaking the UK All-Comers's record of 27:25 set by Haile Gebrselassie.

But after a very tough confrontation against his fellow Africans, he was more than content after moving to second place in this year's world rankings.

"I'm happy with just winning - that became the most important thing when we broke away and made it a race between the three of us," said the 24-year-old Eritrean winner of last autumn's BUPA Great North Run.

Chris Davies for the second successive time was first Briton home when clocking 28:38 just for sixth place - just a second slower than 12 months ago.

David Weir regained his wheelchair title in a time of 21:16 by scoring a convincing victory well ahead of defending champion Tushar Patel and Kenny Herriott.

Shelly Woods spoilt Francesca Porcellato's ambitions of a third successive win, finishing ahead of the Italian in 27:24 with Debra Brennan third in 30:55.