Deriba Merga and Belaynesh Fekadu, the male and female winners respectively of the 2006 TOYOTA Great Ethiopian Run, are both among the entrants for this year’s 10km race on Sunday 23 November.

Merga, the Beijing Olympic Marathon fourth placer, who returned to Addis Ababa on Monday evening after winning last Sunday’s Delhi Half Marathon in 59:15, has confirmed his participation in the race, saying that the race is ‘important speedwork’ for him. Merga has a marathon personal best of 2:06:38 from London this April, having set his 10km PB in San Juan in February (28:03).

Merga won the 2006 race in 28:18 which still stands as the course record. A strong group of young Kenyan athletes together with Britain’s Mohammed Farah, the European 5000m silver medallist and a former continental cross country champion, who has been training in Addis Ababa for the past four weeks, represent the toughest obstacle to Merga winning his second title.

In the women’s race Belaynesh Fekadu will attempt to repeat her victory of two years ago against stiff opposition which already consists of Tiki Gelana and Bizunesh Urgessa.

After winning in 2006 in a course record of 33:02 in 2006, Fekadu finished 7th last year but then had a impressive 2008 track season which saw her selected for Ethiopia’s Olympic 5000m team. In the end she did not participate in Beijing after Tirunesh Dibaba decided to go for the double following her 10,000m victory.

Registration for the mass race closed two weeks ago with all 32,000 places sold out. For the 8th consecutive year the race, which will be started by Haile Gebrselassie, will be shown live on national television.

Elaine Boyd for the IAAF