Olympic champion takes on Marc Scott, Sam Atkin and Jake Smith in Olympic selection event and European Cup competition at University of Birmingham on Saturday June 5

Despite being reigning Olympic champion, Mo Farah must still qualify for this summer’s Tokyo Games and on June 5 at a University of Birmingham track that is likely to be bereft of spectators he will take on the rising stars Marc Scott, Jake Smith and Sam Atkin over 25 laps.

The trio have been named as part of the British team for the European 10,000m Cup, which is held as part of the Müller British Athletics 10,000m Championships.

The event, which is also the official Olympic trial for British athletes, sees a strong domestic line up in the women’s race too with Eilish McColgan, Jess Judd and Amy-Eloise Markovc among others.

Farah’s last 10,000m on the track was at the 2017 World Championships in London where he won his sixth world title. Since then he has enjoyed a foray on to the roads and the marathon but he is returning to the track this year to try to win another Olympic track title aged 38.

Since 2017 he has only raced once on the track – in a one-hour run in Brussels last summer – but appears to have been training well and is set to face a new generation of hungry young British runners in a 10,000m showdown.

This is also the first official trial for a major championship that Farah has done since 2010 when he ran the UK Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championships.

Teams from various other countries for the European Cup have yet to be announced but Farah will face tough opposition from his fellow countrymen as Scott (above) and Atkin have already beaten the Olympic qualifying mark of 27:28.00 in recent months.

Scott ran 27:10.41 in February, which moved him to No.2 on the UK all-time rankings behind Farah’s national record of 26:46.57, while Atkin ran a big breakthrough mark of 27:26.58 just before Christmas in California.

READ MORE: Sam Atkin comes of age with stunning track breakthrough

Smith, meanwhile, has impressed lately by running a debut marathon in Wrexham in 2:11 despite only starting the race as a pacemaker.

Emile Cairess and Kristian Jones complete the strong six-man GB squad.

The first two athletes at the trial event who hold an Olympic qualifying standard will automatically qualify for the Olympics.

McColgan already has the Olympic qualifying mark with 30:58.94 from earlier this year. She is joined in the British team by Lily Partridge, who is moving down to 10,000m after focusing on the marathon in recent years, plus Judd, Jenny Nesbitt, European indoor 3000m champion Markovc and Verity Ockenden.