Fujiwara and Ishikawa Face Gebrselassie and Kipsang at Sunday's Great Manchester Run

by Brett Larner

Moscow World Championships men's marathon squad member Masakazu Fujiwara and his Honda teammate Suehiro Ishikawa will make a return to the roads at Sunday's Bupa Great Manchester Run 10 km for the first time since running 2:08:51 and 2:09:10 at March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon. Appearing through the support of JRN, the two Japanese athletes will face a field including former marathon world record holder and four-time defending champion Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), London Olympics marathon bronze medalist Wilson Kipsang (Kenya) and more. The great Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) leads the women's field along with home-soil tops Helen Clitheroe (Great Britain) and Gemma Steel (Great Britain) and marathoners Jelena Procopcuka (Latvia) and Christelle Daunay (France).

Fujiwara, the Japanese debut marathon and collegiate marathon national record holder at 2:08:12, will be making his debut on U.K. soil, while Ishikawa will be seeking to improve on his 28:47 finish for 8th place at last year's Bupa Great Manchester Run. Fujiwara heads to Moscow to practice on the World Championships course along with fellow national team members Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) and Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) following Sunday's race.

2013 Great Manchester Run Elite Field Highlights
Manchester, 5/26/13

Men
Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda/Japan)
Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia)
Yared Hagos (Ethiopia)
Suehiro Ishikawa (Team Honda/Japan)
Wilson Kipsang (Kenya)
Moses Kipsiro (Uganda)
Sergey Lebid (Ukraine)
Jonny Mellor (Great Britain)
Stephen Mokoka (South Africa)
James Walsh (Great Britain)

Women
Alessandra Aguilar (Spain)
Helen Clitheroe (Great Britain)
Christelle Daunay (France)
Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia)
Susan Partridge (Great Britain)
Jelena Procopcuka (Latvia)
Gemma Steel (Great Britain)

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
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