byLarry Eder
2013 BMW Berlin Marathon Kipsang, Kipsang, Kipchoge, photo by PhotoRun.net
Justin Lagat has some ideas on how the World Marathon Majors in Fall 2014 will play out! Justin will be interviewing some of the top athletes for us this season! Watch for the interviews.
What to look forward to in the upcoming major city marathons:
Athletes with recent feats in marathon running will be seeking to maintain their statuses before the year ends. Others will want to rebuild their names after dismal performances in the recent past marathon races while others will be debuting in marathon. In even other cases, some will be seeking to finally get a break through and establish their names in the world of marathon running.
There are three more major city marathons remaining before the end of this year; the Berlin, the Chicago and the New York City marathons.
Berlin Marathon will be the first to happen on 28th September where there will be a big battle between Tsegaye Kabede, who leads at the men’s WMM leaderboard, and Dennis Kimetto who has a PB of 2:03.45 and has declared his intention to break his countryman’s world record of 2:03.23 here. Also in the field will be Emmanuel Mutai who is one athlete who has remained consistent for years and has a PB of 2:03.52 over the marathon distance and Geoffrey Kamworor, still fresh from being crowned the world half marathon champion earlier this year in Denmark.
The women world half marathon champion, Gladys Cherono, will be there together with Shalane Flanagan and Tirfe Tsegaye in the women’s field.
Chicago will be next on 12th October with Kenenisa Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge finally meeting on the marathon event after the two had battled in many major competitions in the 5000m event at a time when the two used to dominate the track long distance running. Kenenisa usually had the upper hand on track and it will be interesting to see whether he will continue to beat Kipchoge again on the road. Their competition coupled with the presence of other experienced runners in the field that include David Chumba and Sammy Kitwara among others will see to it that fast times are posted at this year’s Chicago Marathon.
Rita Jeptoo who has been undefeated in both Chicago and Boston since last year will be seeking to defend the women’s title as well as maintain her lead at the WMM leaderboard. But will be lining up against Florence Kiplagat who holds the world record over the half marathon distance and was second at the London marathon behind Ednah Kiplagat in April. Jemimah Sumgong who trains with Rita will also be among the contenders for the women title here and will be there to offer team support to her training mate.
On November 2nd will be staged the New York City marathon. The men’s field is destined to be a strong field that will include the world record holder, Wilson Kipsang; World and Olympic Champion, Stephen Kiprotich and the unofficially fastest man over the 42km distance, Geoffrey Mutai, among others.
World champion, Ednah Kiplagat, who is second in points at the WMM leaderboard will be closely watching how Rita Jeptoo will run in Chicago and whether she will get a chance to still go for the lead or to just go for a win. Priscah Jeptoo (Rita Jeptoo’s training mate) besides being the defending champion here will also be seeking to rebuild her name after an injury forced her to drop out of the London marathon in April. Mary Keitany too will be here to stage her come back after her recent Great North Run performance confirmed that she is back again at the top of the world in road running.
The elite athletes preparing to run these races are well aware that they are going to face equally tough competitors who are also preparing well ahead of the marathons. RunBlogRun will strive to get you some exclusive stories in the coming days from some of these elite athletes at their usual training grounds as they finalize on their training ahead of these big races.
