Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega will line up at the AJ Bell Great Manchester Run on Sunday 31 May to defend the elite men's 10K title he claimed on debut last year, organisers confirmed on Thursday. The Ethiopian ran 27:49 in last year's race in his first 10K on the road outside his home country, giving Manchester one of its highest-quality men's winning times in a decade. Barega's return anchors a men's elite field that the Great Run Company describes as the deepest it has assembled for a Manchester 10K since the event last carried Commonwealth and World qualifying status.
Barega is racing on the road this season as part of a managed transition that will eventually take him to the marathon, and Manchester slots between his Diamond League opener and a planned 10,000m start at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 12 June. His coach Tessema Abshero indicated through Ethiopian Athletics Federation channels that the Manchester run is a hard tempo rather than a sub-27 attempt, with the focus on rhythm and surge response over the closing two kilometres of the Deansgate run-in. The point-to-point Manchester course rolls gently down through Trafford and back into the city centre, and has historically rewarded fast even-paced running rather than tactical cat-and-mouse.
The men's elite race assembles around Barega with a strong British contingent, headlined by London Marathon runner-up Mahamed Mahamed, fresh from the 2:04:35 he ran on debut at TCS three weeks ago, and Loughborough-based pacer-turned-racer Sam Atkin. Marc Scott, who ran in last year's Olympic 10,000m final, is also on the start list, alongside multi-time British 10,000m champion Andy Butchart, Eilish McColgan's training partner Jake Smith and a clutch of in-form club athletes from Salford and Leeds City. Behind them, more than 26,000 mass-event entrants will follow over the same closed roads.
The women's elite field is built around Eilish McColgan and Jess Warner-Judd, with Manchester functioning as a marker on McColgan's road back from the foot injury that compromised her London Marathon. McColgan ran 2:24:51 in London despite a partially torn ligament and used the post-race press conference to commit to the Glasgow 2026 marathon at the end of the summer, with Manchester her first race back. Warner-Judd, the British 10,000m champion, has won the last two Manchester 10Ks and arrives off a strong 14:50 5,000m at the Loughborough International dress rehearsal earlier in the week.
The half marathon, run on the same morning over a separate course, has sold out at 12,000 entries with last year's runner-up Phil Sesemann the standout name on the men's start list and Charlotte Purdue heading the women's field after a 1:09 win at the Reading Half. Coverage of both elite races is on BBC One from 10:30 BST, with the men's 10K elite gun set for 11:00. With Barega defending, the Mahamed-McColgan British storyline running through the field and a sold-out mass event behind them, the AJ Bell Great Manchester Run is on track to be the deepest UK road 10K of the season.