Athletics: Kenyans make Edinburgh 10k a formidable challenge

Scotland’s Andrew Lemoncello (Fife AC) and Freya Murray (Edinburgh AC) face formidable fields in the BUPA Great Edinburgh Run 10k road race on Sunday (9.00am).

The two winners of the Great North Run on Tyneside a week last Sunday, Kenyans Martin Mathathi and Lucy Kabuu, are joined by their compatriots and last year’s Commonwealth marathon champions John Kelai and Irene Jerotich, not to mention last year’s men’s winner Titus Mbishei.

Murray, so unlucky with injuries in the last year after representing Scotland in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last October, is still undecided as to whether she will actually run: “I’ve been a bit bothered this week by my back and hip,” said the 28-year-old who, after being out of action for the previous five months, posted a remarkable Scottish rankings-leading half marathon time of 72:44 in the Great North Run, her debut at the distance.

Murray will have plenty of domestic rivalry from England’s Helen Clitheroe, the Great Manchester Run winner earlier this year who was fifth in the Great North Run and Charlotte Purdue, who pipped her over 10,000 metres in Delhi.

For Lemoncello, there is rather more at stake as he is rapidly running out of time to record the qualifying time for next year’s Olympic Marathon, having pulled out of the World Championships in Daegu with a leg injury.

The 28-year-old will be looking for something inside 30 minutes for the 10k.