Great North Run: Which elite athletes make up the field and are taking part in the 2022 race?

Some of the most iconic scenes throughout the years have seen masses of people stream through Newcastle, Gateshead and South Tyneside with crowds cheering them on and red arrows flying overhead.

But in addition to the huge amount of people running for charities or as part of their own stories, some of the top middle and long distance runners from across the world including Olympic and World Championship medalists will also be taking part this year.

Which elite athletes are taking part in the Great North Run this year?

This year’s crop of world class talent has been labelled as the greatest ever men’s elite field by the race organisers and includes a series of runners who have never faced off against each other in road races before.

Current Olympic 10,000m Champion Selemon Barega from Ethiopia is one of the top names in the field. This will be the 22 year-old’s first official half marathon and it comes a few months after he won gold in the 3000m event at the most recent World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo is another favourite for the race, currently being the gold medal holder in the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships as well as holding the half marathon world record. UK Athletics fans will also know him for his two gold medals in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where he won the 5,000m and 10,000m events.

The third of the ‘big three’ involved in the race is 25 year-old Joshua Cheptegei, another Ugandan runner who has a series of world records to his name in addition to winning gold medals at the 2020 Olympic Games, 2022 Athletics World Championships and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Elsewhere in the field, Northallerton’s Marc Scott will be hoping to see a replay of the 2021 Great North Run which saw him win with a time of just over one hour.

Mo Farah, who won every edition of the Great North Run between 2014 and 2019, will not be taking part this year.

Much like Marc Scott, Kenyan Hellen Obiri will look to defend her title after her 2021 Great North Run win this weekend in the women’s category. The athlete, who has picked up two Commonwealth Games gold medals and one bronze medal at the World Championships since the last edition of the race, will also be hoping to beat last year’s winning time of one hour, seven minutes and 42 seconds.

Elsewhere in the field, current Olympic Marathon Champion Peres Jepchirchir is now fresh from her Boston Marathon win and hoping to take the top spot while Ethiopian Hiwot Gebrekidanis also expected to do well. The latter is best known for finishing second in the 2021 Berlin Marathon and has also won marathon events in Israel and China.

British fans are able to cheer on Hampshire based Charlotte Purdue who finished third at last year’s Great North Run and Jess Piasecki who was selected for the 2020 Olympic team after winning the 2019 Florence Marathon.