All conquering Kipsang set for Great Manchester Run

Fresh from setting a Course Record at London Marathon, World marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang will slug it out at Bupa Great Manchester 10km Run on May 18, this year.

Kipsang reclaimed the London Marathon title he won in 2012 last weekend with a course record breaking feat of 2:04:09, seven months after setting a World Record with a time of 2:03:23 in Berlin.

(READ: Wilson Kipsang, Edna Kiplagat win London Marathon titles)

“I just want to rest after London before going for the Great Manchester Run,” said Kipsang, who will go head-to-head with multiple track 500m and 10,00m Gold medallist Kenenisa Bekele at the Manchester run.

Bekele, who holds the 5000m (12:37.35) and 10,000m (26:17.53) world records, ran his maiden marathon in Paris on April 6 where he broke the Course Record with 2:05:04.

However, Kenya’s Priscah Jeptoo, who was to make her debut at the Bupa Great Manchester Run won’t realise her dream after she sustained an injury at last weekend’s London Marathon.

Jeptoo, who was the defending champion at the London Marathon, was forced to withdraw from the race with an injury that has seen her remain in Europe to seek treatment.

The 29-year-old Kenyan enjoyed a trailblazing campaign on the roads in 2013, winning the London and New York City marathons as well as defeating two freshly crowned world champions to emerge victorious from a stellar elite women’s field at the Bupa Great North Run last September.

Jeptoo also won the London 2012 Olympic Games marathon silver medal.

She was in stunning form the last time she raced in Great Britain, in the 2013 Bupa Great North Run, when the focus in the elite women’s race was on the clash between Ethiopian rivals Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba. But Jeptoo broke them both with her blistering mid-race pace in the Tyneside half marathon.

She almost broke Paula Radcliffe’s course record too, finishing just five seconds shy of it with a winning time of 1:05:45.