Global Feud to Sweden – Runs “25 Laps to Tokyo”

The competition is called “25 Laps to Tokyo” and will be decided on Tuesday evening next week. There has been an initial starting roster released and there are several notable names.

Two of them:

• Geletti Burka, 35, from Ethiopia. She won a World Cup silver at the 10,000 meters in Beijing in 2015 and also has a World Cup gold at home in the 1,500 meters from Valencia in 2008.

• Sheila Chipkeroy Kepruch, 30, from Kenya. She was the fastest in the world at the 10,000 meters last year when she ran at 29:46, which is also the second best time ever in the distance.

Additionally, there are eleven other runners from Kenya on the starting list.

– How did this happen? It all started with the fact that we wanted to organize a 10,000m competition to give Maraf Bhata and Sarah Lahti a chance to beat the Olympic qualifiers threshold. And it turned out that the interest was very great, says competition captain Lorenzo Nessi.

Several managers said: “Wow, are you going to have a 10,000m run? Nobody has that now.”. Then one Kenny after another began to fall.

Now it will be a very good level in the race?

Yes, many of these runners have had amazing times. It’s the Diamond League level.

Scroll to SOK

Continued:

– Most of these Kenyan shoes must be very good for our Swedish girls. We are totally committed to conditioning this, so they don’t actually run away at breakneck pace. They just need to fix the Olympic qualification limit, which even our girls are haunting.

How can it be solved?

We try to say: “Well if you just need to pass the Olympic qualifying threshold, can you come out at the speed everyone wants?” But then maybe the demon of competition will appear. We’ll see what happens when the starting shot starts.

– But we have a rabbit. And we have some runners from Europe who can work together in situations like this.

The starting list includes Miriam Duttke from Germany, Jasping Lau from the Netherlands, and Becky Briggs from the United Kingdom. Additionally, Swedish Samrawit Mengsteab is with, but her personal record is more than two minutes away from the Olympic qualifying limit set at 31:25.

How do you assess the chance of Sarah Lahti and a lackluster Maraf passing the qualifiers?

What they have shown so far is that they are on the verge of success. Sarah ran three seconds away and set a Swedish five-kilometer record late last Saturday, Lorenzo Nessi says Morav’s record is 12 seconds faster.

It is a difficult challenge, certainly not a given. But they have the power to do so. Hence it is important for SOK to take them out, they have their requirements in the top eight …

The competition is decided directly outside SOK’s office, and they are at Sofiatornet at Stockholm Stadium. Is there any ulterior motive with it?

– Haha, I didn’t think about that! But you’re right, maybe SOK managers can hand out an Olympic ticket through the window after the competition?