Defending champion Geremew returns to the TCS World 10K Bengaluru 2017, world cross country champion Cheptai heads women’s field

Friday 5 May 2017: Ethiopia’s defending champion Mosinet Geremew will return to the TCS World 10K Bengaluru 2017 with the aim of acquiring his third successive victory at the World’s premier 10K run on Sunday 21 May. Marking a decade in the city, this year’s runners will contest for a total prize money of 2,05,059 USD.

25-year-old Geremew will arrive in Bengaluru in good form on the evidence of his 60:56 win over a strong field at the Yangzhou International Half Marathon in China last month but he will still have his work cut out in his bid for a hat-trick of victories.

Among the strong men’s elite field assembled by the race promoters Procam International, is  world record holder Leonard Komon from Kenya.

Komon clocked his time of 26:44 in the Dutch city of Utrecht back in 2010 and he started this year in good form, his results including a 12^th place finish at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March, but he will want to get much closer to Geremew than in their last encounter when he could only finish a disappointing 17^th in Yangzhou.

The other runners expected to challenge Geremew are two men who have run faster than the defending champion’s personal best of 27:36: New Zealand’s Zane Robertson and Ethiopia’s Birhanu Legese.

Robertson, a Rio 2016 Olympic Games 10,000m finalist, ran his best of 27:28 when winning in Berlin last October, the fastest time in the world last year.

Legese has 10km personal best of 27:38 and is also no stranger to Indian road races. He was an impressive winner of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in 2015 when he clocked 59:20.

Also worth keeping an eye on will be Kenya’s Edwin Kiptoo and Ethiopia’s Guye Adola.

Neither man has yet run under 28 minutes for 10km on the roads but both of them have already gone under the hour for the half marathon this year and will be out to substantially revise their personal bests over the shorter distance in Bengaluru.

The target time for all the top runners is the men’s course record of 27:44, set by Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor in 2014.

The women’s course record also belongs  to a Kenyan, Lucy Kabuu, who clocked 31:48 in 2014.

However, Lucy’s time looks well within the grasp of 2017 world cross country champion Irene Cheptai, also from Kenya, who has only had a handful of road races but can boast of a best of 31:45 from 2014, an excellent time when one remembers it was set at altitude in Nairobi.

Cheptai is one of five women who have personal best times under the current women’s course record, including her compatriot Gladys Chesir.

Chesir is also the fastest woman in the field with 30:41 from when she won in Berlin two years ago.

Among the Kenyan pair’s rivals will be Ethiopia’s Wude Yimer, who won this race in 2010 and was placed second and third in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

In addition to the TCS World 10K for elite runners, there is an Open 10K, the Majja Run (6km) the Senior Citizens’ Race and Champions with Disability Race (both 4km). Approximately 24,000 runners will take to the roads of Bengaluru for five different races in what has become an annual event on the third Sunday in May and has emerged as Asia’s leading run over the last nine years.

MALE ELITE ATHLETES (with 10km personal bests)

Mosinet Geremew                  ETH/1992                      27:36

Leonard Komon                      KEN/1988                     26:44 WR         

Zane Robertson                       NZL/1989                      27:28   

Birhanu Legese                        ETH/1994                      27:34

Mumin Gala                            DJI/1986                       27:51                           

Mule Wasihun                          ETH/1993                      27:57

Abrar Osman                           ERI/1994                       28:05

Solomon Deksisa                     ETH/1994                      28:14

Bonsa Dida                             ETH/1995                      28:16

Edwin Kiptoo                           KEN/1987                     28:20

Abdallah Mande                     UGA/1995                    28:20

Guye Adola                             ETH/1990                      28:22

Paul Kipsiele Koech                 KEN/1981                     28:25

Hiskel Tewelde                         ERI/1986                       debut

Onesphore Nzikwinkunda       BDI/1997                      debut

Stephen Kissa                           UGA/1995                    PACE

FEMALE ELITE ATHLETES

Irene Cheptai                          KEN/1992                     31:45

Gladys Chesir                          KEN/1994                     30:41

Wude Yimer                             ETH/1987                      31:07

Sofiya Shemsu                         ETH/1994                      31:23

Helah Kiprop                           KEN/1985                     31:44

Worknesh Degefa                    ETH/1990                      31:53

Failuna Matanga                     TAN/                            32:48   

Ababel Yeshaneh                    ETH/1991                      33:04

Nazret Weldu                           ERI/1990                       33:22

Desi Jisa                                   BRN/1997                     33:35

Mimi Belete                              BRN/1988                     debut

Carolyne Jepkosgei                KEN/1991                     PACE