Joshua Chelanga beats the heat en route to his victory in the Fortis Rotterdam Marathon (© Olaf Kraak/AFP/Getty Images)
The 2007 JoongAng Seoul Marathon and 10 km race will take place tomorrow, Sunday 4 November, with approximately About 22,000 runners are expected to toe the start line.
The JoongAng Seoul Marathon was created in 1999 to commemorate the 1988 Seoul Olympic and to preserve its spirit.
Last year for the second year in a row the course record was improved. The winner was Jason Mbote from Kenya whose time of 2:08:13 was faster than the winning time of compatriot William Kiplagat who took the 2005 edition of the race in 2:08:27.
A strong elite international field of 23 athletes from countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Korea, Morocco, Estonia, and Ethiopia are expected to challenge the course record and to compete for US$200,000 in prize money on the slightly hilly route which has its start and finish in Jamsil Main Stadium.
Among the favorites of tomorrow’s race is 35-year-old Kiplagat, the 2005 winner who has a PB of 2:06:50, and who finished second last April in the Lake Biwa marathon in Otsu, Japan in 2:10:47. He is coming back to Seoul to make amend for his last year’s unsuccessful performance when he failed to finish.
His main rivals will be another experienced Kenyan athlete Joshua Chelanga, 34, (PB 2:07:05) who won Rotterdam Marathon with a convincing 2:08:21 in April, and Tanzania’s Commonwealth Games champion Samson Ramadhani, 24, (PB 2:08:01) who the won the Lake Biwa Marathon in 2:10:43, 4 seconds ahead of Kiplagat. He was fifth in the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki and was 13th in the Seoul race in 2004.
Strong competition can also be expected from Kenyan Benson Barus, 27, who was second in the 2006 Milan marathon in his debut at the distance where he set his current personal best of 2:08:33.
Abderrahime Bouramdane, 29, from Morocco has a personal best of 2:10:41, a time which he has run twice when coming second in two Canadian races – 2006 Toronto and 2007 Ottawa. He also won the Ottawa race in 2006 (2:12:18).
Several more athletes have a real chance to claim a peace of a prize purse including 26-year-old Kenyan Hillary Kimaiyo Kipchirchir who finished fifth in Ottawa, setting his personal best 2:11:14. Another competitor is young and promising 24-year old Kenyan runner Nicholas Chelimo, who finished second in Belgrade marathon with personal best 2:11:56.
Estonian Pavel Loskutov, 39, (PB 2:08:53), the 2002 European Championship silver medallist, who was the 8th with 2:14:49 in Beppu-Oita Marathon in Japan in February and two Korean runners: Myong-seung Lee (PB 2:13:42) - 2:14:48 in Seoul Marathon in March and Ju-Young Park (2:14:07) - 2:16:58 in Jeonju Marathon (Korea) in April – are also in the frame for honours.
The women’s elite field will consist only of Korean runners. The best are Hye-kyung Kim (PB 2:40:36), Mi-ok Park (PB 2:45:15), Ji-eun Kim (PB 2:52:44).
Yelena Kurdyumova and Sergey Porada for the IAAF
