The Kenyan and Ethiopian runners are a determined lot. With no African runners having won in Bangalore yet, they are keen to make an impression in the BSNL Bangalore International Marathon 2007 to be held here on Sunday.
The last two international marathons held in the Garden City has been dominated by the Indians. This time around, the 42.195-km race is only for men. The 2006 full marathon was won by HA Chinnappa, who is from the Madras Regimental Centre in Wellington. He is likely to be the best bet for India in the event owing to his familiarity with the local conditions.
Also in the fray is Armyman Bipul Saharia, who took the third place last time.
The Kenyans are here for the first time. Out of the five-member team — three men and two women — Ngira Nyaga and Sua Mutisya will run the full marathon. It will be a test for the duo as it is their first international marathon experience. Their trump card is Makau Nzioka, a three-time winner of the Pune Marathon. But they will miss out as Nzioka will be running only the half marathon on Sunday. He had done just above two hours and 18 minutes in Pune.
Coach confident
Kenyan coach Paul Mutwii is confident that his trainees will do well here. "They have told me that this is one of the best routes they have seen. We should be able to do well," Mutwii said.
He is wary of the competition from the Ethiopians and said: "We have competed against them before and I think we can do well."
The Ethiopians are raring to go too and 11 of their runners have already arrived. Eight more expected to arrive later in the night. Their top runner is Berhanu Meleyo Kassa, who has done a fairly good time of two hours and ten minutes for the full marathon at home last year. However, he will be running the half marathon here. For the Ethiopians, the full marathon entrants are Kasahun Gebree Gziabher Mola (2::20) and Fantaw Hussein Adam (2::27). Chinnappa had won last year's event in a time of 2::25:19.
Malaysia's Keong Chee Yam and American Marcus Christopher are also in contention for the top honours.
The field in the full marathon is likely to be fairly competitive with 60 entries received.
The favourite
In the half-marathon, Nzioka's personal best is one hour and two minutes and he is probably the favourite to win the 21.097-km event in the men's category. Competition from him is likely to come in the form of Ethiopia's Kassa, who has a personal best of one hour and three minutes. His team-mates Habteselassie Lemma Gemechu, Birbisa Kumsa Tulu, Zenebe Kasaw Kebret are some runners to watch out for.
Among the Indians in the men's section, the challenge will be led by Armyman and last year's bronze medallist R Radhakrishnan and IM Shivananda.
The top names for the women's half marathon include CRPF's Preeja Sreedharan, Maharashtra's Vaishali Chathare, Satyabhama and L Leelamma. 850 out of the total of 11,500 received so far will run the half marathon.
Besides the main events, there will be battles in the senior citizens' run (5-km open event) and wheelchair (2.5-km open event).
A major attraction for Sunday's event will be the five-km charity run which will see the maximum number of runners taking part. Several former top Indian sportspersons like MP Ganesh, Kenneth Powell, Uday K Prabhu, Ashwini Nachappa, Rosa Kutty, MK Asha, HK Seetharam and Kannada movie star Ganesh among others are participating. The corporate interest in the event has also been very good.