Amsterdam - The 27th edition of the Amsterdam marathon, to be held this Sunday, will see the debut of Gete Wami in the 42,195-kilometre race.

The 27-year-old Ethiopian, who made her name on the track and at cross-country, decided to take a break after her bronze medal performance last year in Edmonton as she was feeling tired by the stress and hard training of previous years. In May, she resumed training focusing on long runs and it was only last week that she decided to compete in the marathon.

Wami, married to Getaneh Tessema, whose promising career as a long distance runner was ended by a terrible road accident and nows works for Jos Hermens’ Global Sports Communication agency is confident she will perform well in Amsterdam.

Wami will have to face strong competition from her compatriot Abeba Tola who won the Amsterdam marathon in 2000 (2:29:56), Romanians Constantina Dita (PB: 2:26:38) and Alina Tecuta (2:28:17), and Alevtina Ivanova (2:32:24) of Russia, and her compatriot Galina Alexandrova, for whom Amsterdam will also be her first marathon.

The Men’s race is wide open, with a very strong field. The best performer is William Kiplagat of Kenya, who ran his personal best precisely three years ago in Amsterdam, where he finished third (2:06:50) in a race were four runners broke the 2:07.

The course in Amsterdam is also well known to Sammy Korir. The 30-year-old Kenyan, a two-time winner in the Dutch capital, set his fastest time in another Dutch city, Rotterdam. A born winner, Korir has already struck victories in Oita (2:11:45) and San Diego (2:09:01) this year.

Another contender for victory will be Spaniard Antonio Pena, who ran his personal best of 2:07:34 last year in Otsu, Japan. In Sunday’s race there will also be two other Kenyan runners who set their PBs in Amsterdam: Simon Bor (2:08:46, 1998) and 40-year-old Abraham Limo (2:09:17, 2000).

The Dutch colours will be defended by Luc Krotwaar. The career of the five-time national marathon champion is presently under-going a second wind. At 34, Krotwaar decided to spend two years training in Iten, Kenya which proved to be the right move for he improved his personal best to 2:10:59 last April in Rotterdam. He also bettered his personal records at 10,000m (28:39.04) and Half Marathon (1:01:49) just a few weeks ago. The organisers hope that Krotwaar will better the national record of 2:09:01, set by Gerard Nijboer 22 years ago in Amsterdam.

Wim van Hemert for the IAAF

Leading Contenders:
Men:
William Kiplagat (KEN)
Antonio Pena (SPA)
Sammy Korir (KEN)
Kamel Saaidou (MAR)
Philip Tarus (KEN)
Simon Bor (KEN)
Abraham Limo (KEN)
Cristopher Kandie (KEN)
Boaz Kimayo (KEN)
Steven Cheptot (KEN)
William Musyoki (KEN)
John Mutai (KEN)
Matthew Sigei (KEN)
Luc Krotwaar (NED)
Ambesse Tolosa (ETH)
Ashebir Demissie (ETH)

Women:
Worknesh Tol (ETH)
Meseret Kotu (ETH)
Ursula Jeitziner (SUI)
Elisabeth Krieg (SUI)
Anne van Chuppen (NED)
Stine Larsen (NOR)