European 5000m silver medallist Eilish McColgan is one of a number of athletes hoping to cement their places at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the European 10,000m Cup in Birmingham on Saturday (5).
The daughter of Liz McColgan, who won the world 10,000m title in the Japanese capital 30 years ago, finished second individually in the last edition in London in 2019 when the event was held in conjunction with the hugely popular Night of the 10,000m PBs fixture which was cancelled this year due to the pandemic.
The Brit stands out as the only athlete who has run under 31 minutes, having taken 18 seconds off her personal best when clocking 30:58.94 in California in February.
She is flanked by compatriot Jess Judd, who ran a hugely impressive 31:25:98 on her 10,000m track debut just last month in Irvine, California although the former middle distance specialist did fall an agonising 0.98 shy of the Olympic qualifying standard.
European indoor 3000m champion Amy-Eloise Markovc and bronze medallist Verity Ockenden are also included in a strong British squad that has won team gold at this event on four of the last five occasions. Markovc finished just ahead of Judd in that race in Irvine in 31:25.91, although she has since secured the Olympic 5000m qualifying time with 15:05.96.
Also in the 3000m final in Torun was Selamawit Teferi who finished sixth. The Israeli ran over half-a-minute quicker than ever before to win her national 10,000m championships in April in 31:43.72.
Reigning two-time champion and teammate Lonah Chemtai Salpeter was a non-finisher in that race and the Olympic-bound marathon runner has opted not to enter this year's event which has moved to the University of Birmingham Athletics Track this year, having been at Parliament Hill Athletics Track in London in 2018 and 2019.
Teferi will be one of the athletes with an eye on the 31:25.00 Olympic qualifying standard this weekend, with Wavelight pacemaking technology showing athletes their speed relative to this mark by creatively illuminating the inside edge of the track all of the way around.
This added great excitement when trialled at the 2019 event when Spain and Italy finished second and third behind Great Britain in the team standings. Heading up the Spanish entries is 38-year-old Maitane Melero, who won the Spanish 10,000m Championships in Torrevieja in April.
Meanwhile, Giovanna Epis returns for Italy, with her focus likely to be towards preparing for the Olympic marathon, having run 2:28:03 last December, a minute inside the qualifying time for Tokyo.
It will be exciting to see young Dutch talent Jasmijn Lau on the senior international stage in her first 10,000m race of the year. The 22-year-old won 10,000m bronze at the 2019 European U23 Championships in Gavle, Sweden behind the German duo of Alina Reh and Miriam Dattke.
Dattke will unfortunately not line up on Saturday as the German team has pulled out due to concerns regarding coronavirus. The Germans were expected to provide the biggest challenge to the Brits in the context of the team race with Tokyo-bound marathon runner Katharina Heinig also named in their team along with twins Deborah and Rabea Schoneborn.
The hugely versatile Albanian Luiza Gega has concentrated on the 3000m steeplechase in recent years, winning a European silver medal in Amsterdam in 2016, but her 32:31.69 pedigree from last summer in a non-paced environment should not be underestimated in the race for the individual medals.
Gega boasts what almost certainly must be a unique selection of national records all the way up from 800m (2:01.31) up to the marathon (2:35:34).
Live results can be found here.