Ethiopians among favourites in Houston
Ethiopia's Demessew Tsega wants to break his countryman's record in the Houston Marathon on Sunday. And beat it by a wide margin.
Tsega is among the favourites for the 40th edition of the city marathon. Ethiopia's Bekana Daba won the 2011 version in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 4 seconds, a record by 33 seconds, and Tsega wants to beat Daba's mark by a minute or more.
"With the help of God," Tsega said through a translator, "I want to make it (the margin) much bigger than that."
About 24 000 runners are scheduled to start the full and half marathons Sunday. About 7 400 men and 5 600 women are entered in the full marathon.
Australian Benita Willis, Ethiopian Alemitu Abera and Russian Margarita Plaksina are among the contenders in the women's marathon.
Willis, based in the US, is trying to make her fourth Olympics. She ran the 10 000 metres in Athens and the marathon in Beijing. She set her personal best in Chicago in 2006 (2:22.36), which would eclipse the Houston record set by Ethiopia's Teyba Erkesso (2:23.53) in 2010.
Willis is targeting only 2:32 - the qualifying time necessary to make her Olympic team.
"I definitely feel like I'm approaching that kind of shape," she said. "The main aim on Sunday is to qualify, to get back on our team and then prepare for London."
Boston Marathon winner Carolina Kilel, from Kenya, headlines the field for the women's half-marathon. Kilel finished fourth in the 2009 half-marathon world championship, and set a personal best in the full distance in Boston last year (2:22.36).