Megan Keith seals Olympic selection in Night of the 10,000m PBs thriller

Scottish runner out-sprints Fiona O’Keeffe to take women’s win as Mohamed Ismael of Djibouti enjoys men’s victory over Patrick Dever

After training in Edinburgh and Inverness in the build-up to the Night of the 10,000m PBs, Megan Keith applied a bit of self-tanning lotion before taking to the track at Parliament Hill. “I hate to say it, but I just had enough of being really pasty in photos!” she said.

There was nothing fake or artificial about her performance on Saturday (May 18) though as she stormed to a thrilling and narrow victory in 31:03.02 ahead of Fiona O’Keeffe of the United States. With an Olympic qualifying time of 30:36.84 already in the bag from earlier this year, it means the 22-year-old has booked her spot in the GB team for the Olympics. “Paris,” she said, “is a reality now, which is nice.”

On a night where the main British sporting spotlight focused on the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk boxing fight in Saudi Arabia, a similarly brutal battle unfolded on Hampstead Heath in north London as Keith and O’Keeffe slugged it out for 25 laps. This was hardly a two-horse race either as Amanda Vestri of the United States, Klara Lukan of Slovenia and Francine Niyomukunzi were all prominent and in the mix until the final three laps when Keith began to draw away with O’Keeffe.

Until that point, Keith had run a patient race too. “I don’t mind being at the front and pushing it along,” she said, “but I didn’t have to tonight and it was hard not to take my turn leading in the early stages. I had to be selfish and didn’t want to be the workhorse for everyone else. I had to be patient, which is difficult when the crowd are making so much noise.”

When she made her move, though, the lead group splintered. Only O’Keeffe, 22, the surprise winner of the US Olympic Marathon Trials in Florida in February, could match Keith’s pace. Ultimately, in a rip-roaring home straight sprint, Keith edged past her rival with a packed Parliament Hill crowd screaming them on.

“The crowd carried me down the home straight,” said Keith.

O’Keeffe was less than half a second behind at the finish with Vestri seven seconds back in third, Lukan a further three seconds behind in fourth and Niyomukunzi, who had threatened to run away from the field mid-race, fifth.

Jess Warner-Judd leads Fiona O’Keeffe and Megan Keith (David Hicks)

With the event doubling as the British Olympic trials, Jess…