Keitany, Kiplagat to clash at Great North Run

Two of the greatest female marathon and half-marathon runners ever are set to clash at the second-largest half-marathon in the world next month.

The Bupa Great North Run, this year becoming the first race to have a million finishers over its lifetime, will see Edna Kiplagat and Mary Keitany, two Kenyans, race on Sept. 7 at what is one of the most competitive half-marathons in the world. The Great North Run has seen plenty of world and Olympic champions and world record-holders win titles and be upset at the northern England race.

Keitany, a name recognizable to Canadians after breaking the Ottawa 10K record earlier this year by running 31:22, is the second-fastest marathoner ever, having run 2:18:38. She’s no stranger to winning in the United Kingdom, having twice won the London Marathon herself. Keitany is also the former half-marathon world record-holder with a personal best of 1:05:50.

Kiplagat is the defending back-to-back marathon world champion after winning in both 2011 and 2013 and won the London marathon earlier this year. She’s looking to become only the fifth woman to win both the London Marathon and Great North Run in the same season.

In the men’s race, Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich, the defending world and Olympic marathon champion, will race, although no other elite entries have been announced. Last year’s men’s race at the Great North Run saw an exciting final sprint between track greats Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Mo Farah in the final kilometre with Bekele narrowly edging Farah to win. The women’s race saw Priscah Jeptoo run an incredible 65:45, only five seconds shy of Paula Radcliffe’s course record.