Eilish McColgan and Marc Scott win Great Manchester Run 10km

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Scottish runner Eilish McColgan won the Great Manchester Run 10km and set a European women-only record time of 30:52 on Sunday.

She went hard from the start. McColgan split 8:58 at 3kms. The Tokyo Olympian left the field to fight for third as other than Meraf Bahta of Sweden, everyone else was 150m back at 10-minutes into the race. Soon Bahta would drop too.

McColgan went through 5km in 15:00, alone. She was on pace to run 30:00, which was 21 seconds faster than the current European record that is held by Paula Radcliffe. McColgan ran a positive split, but it certainly was a gutsy effort off the line.

The men’s race was won by Marc Scott in the time of 28:03. The podium was swept by British runners as Andrew Butchart and Jack Rowe took second and third in the times of 28:05 and 28:07, respectively.

Scott left Butchart and Rowe during the latter portion of the race. However, Butchart challenged Scott before being dropped late, to win by two seconds.

The performance was a new personal best for the 27-year-old Scott. He is enjoying a big year having run a 10,000m best in February in the time of 27:10.41 and a half-marathon PB in August in 1:00:35. He has set six new personal bests in 2021 and holds the national record in the road 5km at 13:20.

It was also a new personal best performance for Butchart, who finished sixth in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games 5000m final in the time of 13:08.61.

For Jack Rowe, it was his sixth personal best set this year from 1500m (3:42.56) to the half-marathon (1:02:11).