GEBRSELASSIE & CHERUIYOT LEAD EXCELLENT MANCHESTER 10-K FIELDS
By David Monti
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - use with permission
Haile
Gebrselassie and Vivian Cheruiyot are the top-seeded athletes for
Sunday's Bupa Great Manchester 10-K, one of Europe's top road races and
a great appetizer for the nascent track season. Both athletes have a
very good chance for lowering the already fast course records of 27:21
and 31:07.
Gebrselassie last appeared in Manchester in 2005 when
he won the race in 27:25, then a British all-comers record. But in
2007, Micah Kogo won a tough battle there with Zersenay Tadese and
broke Gebrselassie's mark and set the current record. (Kogo would go
on to also break Gebrselassie's world record over the distance at
Brunssum earlier this year, clocking 27:01.)
Fabiano Joseph, the
2006 IAAF World Half-Marathon champion from Tanzania, looks to be
Gebrselassie's top challenger. But 8-time European Cross Country
champion Sergey Lebid of Ukraine and 2002 European 10,000m champion
Chema Martinez of Spain could also contend.
Cheruiyot, who
was fifth in the Beijing Olympics in the 10,000m, will have 2008 IAAF
World Cross Country Championships silver medalist Mestewat Tufa of
Ethiopia, and two-time ING New York City Marathon champion Jelena
Prolopcuka of Latvia to contend with. Hungary's Aniko Kalovics and
Portugal's Sara Moreira also have a good chance at a podium finish.
The
10-K race, which had about 24,000 finishers last year, will only be
part of the day's athletics action in Manchester. Later in the day,
using a special straight Mondo track put down on the streets, Usain
Bolt will run in the 150m dash in the Bupa GreatCity Games. British
sprinters Ricky Fifton and Simeon Williamson will give chase, all on
live television on BBC2.
ENDS