Stephen Sambu, Mike Kigen, Dickson Chumba and Cyprian Kotut to take on the Morrisons Great Newham London Run Marathon Team Relay in July

A quartet of leading Kenyan road runners has been named in an international men’s team for the Morrisons Great Newham London Run 4 x Marathon Team Relay at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on July 19.

Mike Kigen, who pushed Britain’s Mo Farah to the wire in the 2014 Great North Run, 2015 Morrisons Great Manchester Run winner Stephen Sambu, 2014 Tokyo Marathon champion Dickson Chumba and 2015 world number two half-marathon runner Cyprian Kotut are set to join forces and could collectively target the two-hour barrier for the 26.2 mile event.

The marathon world record stands at 2:02:57 to Dennis Kimetto and the Kenyan’s compatriots will look to better that mark as well as even go for the two hour barrier when they each run a 10.54km leg of the 2012 Olympic Park in East London.

Each of the athletes boast a sub-29:00 personal best for 10km on the roads, Sambu leading the 2015 world rankings with the 27:30 he recorded when winning the Great Manchester Run last month.

Kigen, Sambu, Chumba and Kotut will line up against a British men’s team featuring Scottish cross-country champion Andy Butchart, who finished a battling third in the 3000m at the European Team Championships in Cheboksary, Russia, last weekend.

Butchart will team up with fellow Scots Luke Caldwell and Callum Hawkins, plus English cross-country champion Charlie Hulson.

European under-23 cross-country champion Rhona Auckland, Commonwealth Games 5000m and 10,000m finalist Beth Potter, English cross-country champion Lily Partridge and Jess Coulson, who finished fourth in the European Cup 10,000m track race earlier this month, form the British women’s quartet.

The 4 x Marathon Team Relay is open to runners of all abilities. Each runner completes two laps of the course, running 10.54km, and the prizes on offer in both the men s and women s sections are 2,000 for the winning team, 1,000 for the runners-up and 500 for the third placed team.

Prize money is to be divided equally among each four runners with an additional 500 bonus to go to the winning club or to a charity chosen by the winning team if the runners are not all members of the same club.

Entry is available at www.greatrun.org

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