10K will be one of fastest this year, organizers say
Almost 100 elite runners are expected to compete in the May 23 IAAF Gold label 10K run, part of the Ottawa Race Weekend. Organizers predict it will be one of the fastest 10-kilometre events in the world for 2015.
The race weekend will host the Gold label event as well as the Canadian national championship, which is being held in Ottawa for the first time. Both events will be held simultaneously, on the same course.
“The combination of being a Gold label event and hosting the national championship has led to the deepest 10K field that I have seen on Canadian soil,” says Manny Rodrigues, race weekend’s elite athlete co-ordinator.
In 2014, the fastest 10K times outside Ottawa were 28:31 for men and 32:32 for women. Race weekend organizers have recruited 10 men and eight women with faster personal times than those.
“We have five men ranked in the top 25 for road running right now, and we have the top runners from seven countries,” says Rodrigues. “For the national championship, we have some of the top runners from eight provinces and one territory. The depth is incredible.”
Kenyan David Kogei, who finished second in the 10K event last year in Ottawa, will be back. Kogei finished with a time of 28:06, six seconds behind countryman Wilson Kiprop (28:00).
Also competing are Ethiopian Tilahun Regassa (27:32, personal best time), Kenyan Nicholas Bor, (27:38 PBT) and Maos Metei. also from Kenya, who recently ran 27:58.
On the women’s side, the Gold label 10K race will include world half-marathon and 10,000-metre champion Gladys Cherono of Kenya. She will be trying to eclipse the 31;21 course record set in 2014 by Mary Keitany, also a Kenyan. Cherono will also be trying to win Ottawa’s gender competition.
Women in the 10K start about four minutes earlier than men. The first runner to cross the finish line, regardless of gender, wins a $2,000 bonus.
Canadian women’s marathon record holder Lanni Marchant and 10K champion Eric Gillis will also be running in the national 10K event. Krista Du Chene, who broke her femur last year, is also entered, as are 2014 Canadian 10K champ Rachel Hannah (33:09) and Rhiannon Johns, who won the Canadian Marathon Championships in Ottawa last year (2:47:11).