Kimetto returns to Chicago Marathon

What you need to know:

  • Defending champions Kirui, Kiplagat face tough challenge.
  • Kiplagat is chasing her third straight title in “Windy City” where two-time world champion Abel Kirui will be out to defend the men’s race.a

Dennis Kimetto makes a comeback to competitive running in Sunday’s Chicago Marathon (from 3pm Kenyan time) after several months out injured, with Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba also expected to challenge Kenya’s defending champion Florence Kiplagat in the women’s race.

Kiplagat is chasing her third straight title in “Windy City” where two-time world champion Abel Kirui will be out to defend the men’s race.

Kimetto told journalists earlier this week that he doesn’t know how his body will respond in Sunday’s race, but will be attacking the course record of two hours, three minutes and 45 seconds.

“I am in training and don’t want to put any demands on myself. It has been frustrating and I tell you all that matters now is to get back on the starting line-up and compete,” he told Xinhua news agency.

“How the body will take that pressure is something I can’t tell right now. If things go as planned, I want to break the course record in Chicago.”
Training mates confident

Kimetto’s Netherlands-based Volare Sport stable will be hoping to bounce back after one of their star runners, former world record holder Wilson Kipsang, dropped out of last month’s Berlin Marathon after 30km.

“The shape of Dennis seems to be good,” Hannah Biwott-Van de Veen of Volare sport told Nation Sport from Chicago. “He is confident that he will run well, and his training mates are confident too.

“It has been a long time for him without a good result so finishing comfortably would be great and I hope all goes well for him.”

Kimetto, 33, is the marathon world record-holder from his 2014 Berlin triumph in 2:02:57. He also won at Chicago and Tokyo in 2013, capturing the US race in 2:03:45.

But Kimetto is a bit of a mystery this time around, having failed to finish two of his four marathon starts since 2014, including this year’s Boston Marathon in April due to an injury.

BIWOTT RARING TO GO

Kenya’s Stanley Biwott, the 2015 New York Marathon winner, was second at London last year in 2:03:51, making him second-fastest in the field Sunday in his Chicago debut.

And Olympic runner-up Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia, last year’s Tokyo Marathon winner, comes to Chicago off a New York Half Marathon triumph. He was third at Chicago in 2010 and second in 2012.

The defending Chicago champion is 35-year-old Kirui, the 2012 London Olympic marathon silver medallist who captured world marathon titles in 2009 and 2011 and edged Dickson Chumba by three seconds last year in 2:11:23. Kirui was fourth at this year’s London Marathon.

Ethiopia’s Zersenay Tadese, 35, was eighth in the 10,000m in Rio and is hoping to complete a marathon for the fourth time in his career.

Dibaba, who owns the world 5,000 metres world record of 14:11.15, will be tested by Kiplagat, who won last year in 2:21:32, nearly two minutes ahead of runner-up Edna Kiplagat.

Dibaba, 32, is a two-time 5,000m world champion and three-time 10,000m world champion who settled for second at this year’s worlds in London, trailing only compatriot Almaz Ayana. Dibaba won 5,000 and 10,000 gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and defended the longer crown four years later in London.

Last year in Rio, Dibaba was third in the 10,000m with the fourth-fastest time in history.

Now she is chasing the Chicago Marathon women’s course record of 2:17:18 set by Britain’s world-record holder Paula Radcliffe in 2002. And Dibaba won at London in April in 2:17:56, becoming the third-fastest woman at the distance on a similar flat course.

“I’ve always been building to marathons,” Dibaba said. “I want to use my 10k foot speed and make history.”