Keri-Anne Payne and Jessica Ennis
Two world champions from the worlds of athletics and swimming will be taking part in Manchester’s ‘Great Day of Sport’, it is announced today.
Sunday 15 May will see three world class sporting events staged in Manchester in one day: the Bupa Great Manchester Run, the British Gas Great Salford Swim, and the Powerade ION4 Great CityGames.World and European heptathlon champion, Jess Ennis, will be making her first outdoor appearance of the season, competing in the 150 metres, and the hurdles in the Powerade ION4 Great City Games. This will be a second appearance at the Great City Games for Ennis, who competed on the specially constructed four lane track on Deansgate in Manchester city centre in 2010.
On the same day, Olympic silver medalist and world 10k open water swimming champion Keri-Anne Payne, will compete over the one mile distance in Salford Quays in the British Gas Great Salford Swim.
The Great Day of Sport will kick off with the ninth staging of the Bupa Great Manchester Run. Legendary athletes Paula Radcliffe and Haile Gebrselassie will line up with 38,000 other athletes of all abilities for the 10K race.
Radcliffe, the 10k world record holder, will be making her return to competitive running after a 15 month absence, as she begins her build up to the London 2012 Olympics. Meanwhile Gebrselassie, who scored a fast half marathon victory in Vienna on Sunday in his preparations for the race, hopes to win for a fourth time, his third successive title.
40,000 competitors will be taking part in all the day’s events, which will be televised live on BBC Two with a combined total of five hours of coverage from the sports mad city. The BBC team covering the British Gas Great Salford Swim will include Australia’s superstar swimmer Ian Thorpe, who won an incredible 5 Olympic Gold medals in his illustrious career and picked up at 6 golds at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
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