The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 10,000m record holder, Sam Chelanga will return to the 86th edition of the Manchester Road Race that will be held on Thursday (24) in Manchester, Connecticut, United States.
The 37 year-old who took the honors at this event in 2013 with the sixth fastest time of 21:31, will make his third appearance at the race after taking bronze medal last year in 21:37. The first lieutenant in the U.S. Army who also competes for its World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) will not have an easy ride as he will battle his compatriot former Kenyan now trading for the United States Hilary Bor, who will turn 33 on November 22nd and is a former Army WCAP runner who earned All-American honors at Iowa State University.
This will be the fourth appearance for Bor at this event. He finished in fifth place in 2019 in a time of 21:34, eighth in 2018 in 22:03 and was the 13th finisher at the 2016 event with a time of 22:03
The two army officers will have to get past the Scottish record holder in the 3000, 5000 and 10,000m, Andy Butchart. The 31 year-old had back-to-back third place finishes at the MRR in 2018 and 2019 in a time of 21:45 and 21:23 respectively.
Two newcomers to the road race, Cam Levins, and Conner Mantz will also be on the start line as they try to fight for the top honors. Levins, 33, ran for Canada in the 2012 and 2020 Olympic Games. He finished fourth in the marathon at this year’s World Championships with a time of 2:07:09.
Mantz won the 2020 and 2021 NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships. The 25 year-old was placed seventh at the Chicago Marathon on Oct 9th in a time of 2:08:16, the fastest marathon debut ever run by a natural-born U.S. Citizen.
The race organisers have assemble a strong deep field that will be eying the race Course record of 21:16 that was set by Edward Cheserek from Kenya in 2018.
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