Tadesse top of Manchester bill

Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Zersenay Tadesse will head the African challenge for top honours in this month’s BUPA Great Manchester Run.

Tadesse, who became Eritrea’s first Olympic medallist with his brilliant showing almost two years ago, has progressed tremendously since his performance in Athens.

Last year the 24-year-old African finished runner-up to Kenenisa Bekele in the IAAF World Cross Country long course race before unleashing an even more impressive performance in the BUPA Great North Run, posting the world’s fastest half marathon time of 59 minutes five seconds at the Tyneside venue.

“That was a phenomenal performance and should have set him up nicely to win the world title a few weeks later but he picked up an injury,” said Matthew Turnbull, the GMR’s elite athletes director.

“In the winter he performed superbly in both international cross country and road running races.”

Turnbull is now searching for the right calibre of opponents to fully test Tadesse when he takes to the Manchester streets on May 21 for the fourth staging of the 10 kilometres race, although Haile Gebrselassie will not be returning to defend his title.

“It’s a pity as there is a great deal of competitiveness between him and Tadesse but he’s still got the London Marathon in his legs,” said Turnbull of the Ethiopian all-time great.