Eisa clocks 30:42 to take the women’s title as Barega runs 27:49 in the men’s 10km event
Medina Eisa and Selemon Barega ensured that Ethiopian runners dominated the 2025 AJ Bell Great Manchester Run as they took convincing victories over 10km on Sunday (May 18).
Eisa, the world under-20 5000m champion and Olympic 5000m seventh-placer from last year, ran away from a strong field to clock 30:42 in the women’s race amid blue skies on a fine early summer morning in north-west England.
Emily Sisson of the United States finished runner-up in 31:03 as she came through strongly in the latter stages to pass Gotytom Gebreslase of Ethiopia (31:11) and Hellen Obiri of Kenya (31:16) in the latter stages.
Issy Batt-Doyle of Australia was fifth in 31:30 with Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya sixth in 31:35.
First Brit home was Amy-Eloise Neale with 31:37 followed by Dominique Scott of South Africa (32:05) and Britain’s Verity Ockenden (32:21).
Sisson clocked a PB and said: “I thought on a really good day I could sneak into the top three but to finish second is really good for me. It’s definitely a fast course but it was a bit more tactical today.”
Barega was also dominant but waited until just over 400m to go before unleashing his sprint, coming home in 27:49.
“I’m really happy with that run,” said Barega, who is now stepping on to the roads after a successful track career that included winning Olympic 10,000m gold in 2021. “But the marathon is very different from 10km, so let’s see.”
Santiago Catrofe of Uruguay was runner-up in 27:52 with Vincent Ngetich, the 2024 Great Manchester Run winner from Kenya, third in 27:58.
Mosinet Geremew of Ethiopia finished fourth in 28:21, just ahead of Britain’s Alfie Manthorpe, who continued his fine improvement as he clocked 28:22, just ahead of Australian Brett Robinson, who was sixth in 28:27.
Kenya Sonota of Japan was seventh in 29:02 with Britain’s Dewi Griffiths eighth in 29:10.
David Weir won the men’s wheelchair race by a big margin in 21:19 as Jade Jones-Hall was first woman home.
