Men’s field

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The Night of 10,000m PBs happening in London, UK on Saturday features 30 men who have run sub-29:00 in the final section alone. And there are 26 more who have run sub-30:00. At least 227 sub-elite and elite men will be racing, at least four of whom have run sub-28:00.

The UK Athletics Championships’ main event features Great Britain’s Sam Atkin (27:26), Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa (27:30), and Germany’s Richard Ringer (27:55). Twenty-five-year-old Ayala Gashau of Isreal ran 28:03.20 at the end of April. His marathon best is a solid 2:09:30. The meet Saturday may be a good opportunity for him to get well into the 27s and compete for the win.

Crippa owns a very fast 59:26 half-marathon best. The performance from February is a national record. The 25-year-old owns five other national records including the 10,000m best of 27:10.76. The entry list has him seeded with a 27:30. His brother Nekagenet Crippa owns a lifetime best of 27:51.93 from June last year.

The Crippa’s could go 1-2. For European athletes, 2022 is a big year with the Munich European Championships happening Aug. 15-21 and Eugene World Athletics Championships July 15-24. Athletes from Great Britain also have the Birmingham Commonwealth Games to consider. They take place from July, 28 to Aug. 8.

Commonwealth Games standards: Men — (GB 28:00.00), 27:30.90 — Women — 31:00.00
European Athletics Championships standards: Men — 28:15 — Women — 32:20.00
World Athletics Championships standards: Men — 27:28.00 — Women — 31:25.00

Women’s field

Although Eilish McColgan is not indicated on the entry list, she is apparently racing the UK Athletics Championships Saturday. She’s on a roll and may bring down the national record.

February last year she clocked a 30:58.94 performance. The Scottish record is held by her mother Liz McColgan-Nuttall at 30:57.07. Paula Radcliffe owns the British record at 30:01.09. It may be a tall task to take nearly 58 seconds off her personal best, but she is favoured to win and can certainly improve upon the Scottish record.

Great Britain’s Jessica Judd is an interesting athlete with a strong range. Her 1500m best is 4:03.73, which garners an 1176 points performance rating. Her 31:20.96 best 1174 and half-marathon of 67:52 is also valued at 1174 points, which she ran in January this year.

There may be a fight for second place between 27-year-old Swede Sarah Lahti and Judd. The former has clocked a 31:11.12 from one year ago. Amy Eloise-Markovc could make the race interesting. The 26-year-old owns a best of 31:25.91. Eloise-Markovc owns European Indoor Championships gold in the 3000m event. She is based in the US but competes for Great Britain.

As for McColgan, she ran a road 30:23 at the Vitality London 10K two weeks ago. She had run the road 10K event as fast as 30:52 prior. McColgan currently holds eight national bests or national records from 3000m steeplechase (9:35.82) to the half-marathon at 66:26. In this race, she missed Radcliffe’s British and European road record by just two seconds but improved upon her mother and coach’s (Liz McColgan-Nuttall’s) record of 30:38 which had stood since 1989.

She is the favourite Saturday.

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