The 65th edition of the Chosunilbo Chuncheon Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Race, features a strong field of elite men. 28-year-old Mulugeta Wami returns to Chuncheon to defend his 2009 title from this race. Wami won a tight race clocking 2:09:50 last season.
But this year’s race is a high standard with several athletes with a personal best well under 2 hours and 10 minutes. The brightest star of the field is 27-year-old Deriba Merga, the winner of the 2009 Boston Marathon. The Ethiopian also raced in Boston this year placing third in a season’s best 2:08:39. In 2008 Merga set his personal best 2:06:38 in London and also placed fourth in Beijing at the Olympics. Countryman Mulugeta Wami won here in 2009 and has set his personal best 2:08:32 in Paris in April this year.
A few more runners with a big marathon win will be challenging the Ethiopian duo. 2009 Rome Marathon winner, 31-year-old Kenyan Benjamin Kiptoo set a big 2:07:17 in that Rome race. Kiptoo too has a fast 2010 time with a 2:08:01 fourth place finish in Paris.
Another Kenyan Raymond Kipkoech won the Berlin Marathon in 2002 with a 2:06:47 personal best and although he hasn’t quite reached that level again he has clocked a sub-2:10 marathon during five seasons since 2006. This year Kipkoech has only raced once (2:14:21) in Daegu, Korea in April. 32-year-old Robert Cheboror also has a big PB with 2:06:23 set in Amsterdam where he won in 2004. This year the Kenyan has raced one time in Milan clocking 2:13:46.
The top European in the race will be Ukrainian Oleksandr Kuzin, who turned 36 on Thursday. The experienced runner ran his PB 2:07:33 winning the Linz Marathon in 2007 and has yet to race in 2010. The deep field has some more athletes with a possibility to upset the top names.
30-year-old Kenyan Benson Barus has not quite yet made it to the top, but has one marathon win in Turin 2009 and a fast time in 2010 with 2:09:00 in Rome. Tanzanian Mohamed Msenduki Ikoki will be looking for his first sub-2:10 race, he won the Mainz Marathon earlier this year in 2:11:01, a personal best for the 24-year-old.
ShareThis