Added significance to Marathon after terror attack

The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon tomorrow is the first major international sporting event in the city after the November 26 terror attacks that shook the citizens of the country's financial capital.

The event will see 150 elite foreign athletes, including 52 women, taking part in the full marathon that has attracted 2,500 entrants.

A quality field, led by two-time men's champion John Kelei of Kenya, has assembled to vie for the top honours in the race starting at the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and ending at the same venue after the athletes touch another site of the terror strike - the Trident Hotel - on their way. The route for the race is more or less the same as last year's with the runners negotiating the Kemp's Corner flyover twice - the toughest part of the otherwise flat course.

Kelei, whose winning efforts in 2007 and '08 were 2 hours, 12 minutes, 27 seconds and 2:12.22 respectively, is expected to face stiff competition from his countryman Usisivu Boniface whose personal best time is 2:07.50. David Tarus (Kenya) and Adrerahime Bouramdane (Morocco), besides Kenya-born French runner Simon Munyutu and Jote Demissue of Ethiopia, are some other strong men contenders.

Kelei said he is prepared for running in the humid conditions in Mumbai which poses a big challenge to all runners.

"The heat and humidity are the biggest challenges. I have prepared well for these conditions. They deplete you so much," he said.

China's Liu Liujan is a strong contender for the women's crown apart from Haile Kebebush (Ethiopia), Irina Permitina (Russia), Olena Biloschchuk (Ukraine), Anne Kosgei and Lena Cheruyiot (both Kenya).

The hosts' challenge in the men's section would be spearheaded by two-time top finisher (among the host country runners) Ram Singh Yadav while Pasholitima Devi is again there to try and repeat her feat of last year by finishing on top of the Indian women finishers' heap.

Armyman Deep Chand Saharan is another leading runner and India's entrant for the third leg of the four-phased Greatest Race on Earth. He's aiming for a top-ten finish despite the fact that he will be running his second gruelling 42.195-km race in two months.

"I want to finish in the top ten. I won the Allahabad Indira Gandhi Marathon in November after setting my personal best time of 2 hours, 19 minutes and 21 seconds. I was overall fourth, and the first among Indian runners, in the Pune International Marathon", he said yesterday.

The men's and women's half marathons, which are to start 50 minutes before the full marathon, have attracted 10,000 athletes which include 280 from abroad.u00a0