John Kelai captures the Commonwealth Marathon title in New Delhi (© Getty Images)
Course records are under threat in the third Brighton Marathon, an IAAF Bronze Label Road Race, that takes place on Sunday 15 April.
The fields include four sub-2:12 men and three women who have bettered 2:35.
Commonwealth Games champion, John Kelai of Kenya, will be attempting to add the Brighton title to his impressive portfolio, but his task will be made all the more difficult by the presence of fast fellow-Kenyan, Peter Some.
Some’s lifetime best of 2:10:16 was set in Padua last April. The current record at Brighton stands at 2:16:07.
Inaugural winner, Mongolian Serod Batochir, returns to the scene of his 2010 triumph having improved his personal best by over three minutes in the last two seasons.
The women’s record of 2:34:51 could fall to anyone of three women who have broken 2:35.
Aspiring to join them is Britain’s Holly Rush who came within a whisker of setting a lifetime best in Houston in January when she failed by just three seconds to revise her time of 2:37:35 from Zurich 2008.
Belarus’s Sviatlana Kouhan (2:33:18PB), Etaferahu Tarekegne of Ethiopia (2:34:06PB) and Kenya’s Irene Chepkirui (2:34:41) are the main contenders, but Rush set a lifetime best over the half marathon recently and could make inroads on the top three.
The event, now in its third year, has seen the number of registered runners rise dramatically to 18,000.
Michael Butcher for the IAAF
ELITE FIELD with fastest times
MEN
John Kelai KEN 2:09:09
Peter Some KEN 2:10:16
Tomas Abyu GBR 2:10:37
Serod Batochir MGL 2:11:35
Dominic Pius Ondoro KEN 2:14:23
Assefa Mezgebu ETH 2:14:52
Clint Perrett AUS 2:17:28
WOMEN
Sviatlana Kouhan BLR 2:33:20
Etaferahu Tarekegne ETH 2:34:06
Irene Chepkirui KEN 2:34:41
Holly Rush GBR 2:37:35
Sarah Stradling GBR 2:44:03
