Peres Jepchirchir will compete in the Great Manchester Run 10km race on Sunday
Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir and Hellen Obiri will compete in the Great Manchester Run 10km race on Sunday.
Jepchirchir will be using the race to train for the next marathon season where she is optimistic of good results.
The Kapsabet-based Jepchirchir will battle it out with defending champion Hellen Obiri, who is fresh from winning the Boston Marathon last month in the USA, among other athletes.
“Competing in the race on Sunday is just part of my training as we start another marathon season. I’m still waiting for confirmation from my management on which race I will be competing in next,” said Jepchirchir.
She said that it feels good competing once again after being out for a long period due to injuries. She has set her eyes on performing well in the forthcoming assignments.
“Competing in the London Marathon and finishing on the podium was something sweet for me. I was running to see how my body would react and I was elated by my performance. I believe I will be able to compete well in the forthcoming events,” added Jepchirchir.
Obiri has risen to stamp authority in the road races after graduating from track where she ruled in the 5,000m and 10,000m. She said that she has just resumed her training and prepared for only two weeks.
“I will be competing on Sunday but I don’t have anything in mind despite having ran a course record last year. I will be eyeing a good race because I have just trained for two weeks,” Obiri told Nation Sport on phone from UK.
Her debut in marathon saw her emerge sixth in the 2022 New York Marathon in a time of 2:25:49 before winning her second marathon race, Boston Marathon in a personal best of 2:21:38.
Also in the mix is Ethiopia’s former world silver medalist in the 5,000m Senbere Teferi, British athletes, Mollie Williams, Steph Twell, Rose Harvey, Lily Patridge among others.
In last year’s race, Obiri ran a course record of 30:15 winning ahead of British Eilish McColgan who clocked 30:19 while Kenya’s Ruth Chepng’etich settled for third place in 30:29.
posted Saturday May 20th
by Bernard Rotich