Bekele meets Cheptegei, the man who took away his world records, in Valencia

The Valencia Marathon is that this coming weekend. Justin Lagat has some concepts for this marathon. 

Valencia has at all times produced quick occasions from 10 Km to half marathon and full marathon. That’s the reason we must be anticipating an thrilling race this weekend, given the dream elite fields. The lengthy listing of elite runners might be a results of runners making an attempt to hit the Olympic qualifying occasions. From nations the place selectors at all times discover it laborious to decide on runners to signify them in main world championships, the Kenyan and Ethiopian runners right here may have extra incentives to push tougher.

It appears set to be a race between the skilled and the brand new stars within the marathon distance, within the males’s race.

Thrice Olympic and 5 occasions World Champion, Kenenisa Bekele represents the skilled runners. His private finest time of two:01:41, which he ran in 2019 on the Berlin Marathon, makes him the quickest on the beginning listing with 44 runners who’ve run underneath 2:10:00! Nonetheless, it has been some time because the Ethiopian nationwide file holder ran a terrific race over the gap.

Most eyes can be on Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, the person who broke Bekele’s long-standing world data for the 5000m and 10,000m on the monitor and who he’ll occur to satisfy on his marathon debut on Sunday coincidentally. Cheptegei represents the brand new runners within the marathon distance.

Will Bekele seize the chance to get again on the man who took his monitor world data? Will Cheptegei take his pace to the marathon distance and set up his identify within the distance as nicely? Time will inform.

Can an elite runner enhance his private finest time in a marathon by a margin of just about ten minutes? It is going to be value watching Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie, who has a private finest of two:13:43, for that chance. His private finest time of 57:32 for the half marathon predicts a possible for him to run nicely in Valencia.

Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay, with a private finest time of two:03:00, which he ran final 12 months on the Valencia marathon to complete second, the identical place he completed on the Boston Marathon earlier this 12 months, would be the different identify to observe carefully.

The opposite sub 2:04:00 runners to be careful for will embody Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso with 2:03:29, Ethiopia’s Getaneh Molla with 2:03:34, and Sisay Lemma, who can also be an Ethiopian, with 2:03:36.

“In a pre-Olympic 12 months, the Valencia Marathon represents the strongest occasion on the planet. Dozens of athletes want to guide their ticket to Paris 2024, with greater than a dozen searching for nationwide data and each the lads’s and girls’s front-runners going for course data. Valencia is, as soon as once more, the Ciudad del operating,” says Valencia Marathon’s worldwide elite coach, Marc Roig.