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The world 10,000 silver medalist will seek to lower his personal best in Saturday’s lucrative A-race at Parliament Hill
World 10,00m silver medalist Stanley Waithaka will be among the top names at this weekend’s the Night of the 10,000m PBs in London which has a prize money of £30,000 (Ksh5 million).
The annual event has attracted runners from many countries including Chile, Mexico, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and the United States, among others and Waithaka, who was a surprise runner-up behind Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda in the world 10,000m final in Eugene last year, could be the man to beat in Saturday’s A-race at Parliament Hill.
His best of 27:13.01 was set in 2018 but the 23-year-old, who splits his time between Kenya and Japan, ran 27:33.79 last month and in Eugene last year, he clocked 27:27.90 to finish half a second behind Cheptegei and a few hundredths ahead of Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, Grant Fisher of the United States and Selemon Barega of Ethiopia to take his first major senior medal.
Vincent Mutai, who won the World Under-18 1,500m silver back in 2011 and, now aged 28, has a 10km road best of 27:34 on his resume, will be the other Kenyan in the race.
Kenyan-born American Paul Chelimo is another strong contender and will be a better-known name to most spectators, having won Olympic 5,000m silver behind Mo Farah in 2017 and Olympic 5,000m bronze in 2021. He has a 5,000m best of 12:57.55.
There is also Irishman Efrem Gidey, who will seek to improve his best of 27:59.22, while British hopes will be led by Andy Butchart. The 31-year-old’s finest moment so far came when finishing sixth in the 2016 Rio Olympics 5,000m but his move to 25 laps is going well as he clocked a Scottish record of 27:36.77 in his debut last year in California.
The Mahamed brothers from Southampton, Zak and Mahamed, will be hoping to make their mark too. Zak’s best of 29:14.16 looks set for a serious revision whereas older brother Mahamed’s PB is 28:19.27 as they both emerge from a successful cross-country season where Zak won European Under-23 silver behind Charles Hicks and Mahamed took UK Inter-Counties gold.
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