NAIROBI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Asian Games 10,000m silver medalist Eunice Chumba, who trains in Kenya, will be the athlete to beat at Sunday's Liupanshui marathon in China's southwestern Guizhou province.
Chumba, a naturalized Bahraini who placed second in the Beijing marathon, will return to China hoping to continue her cruise and add another feather to her illustrious medal cap.
"I love running in China and was happy to win silver in Beijing last September. I look forward to returning to September and run in Beijing. But for now, the focus is to win the title in Liupanshui because I have trained well and am focused on the target," she said on Friday.
The men's course record of 2:16:10 set by Kenya's Kipsaat Mathew last year also looks vulnerable as the organizers lined up seven athletes who have run below the mark of two hours and ten minutes.
Philip Sylvester Teimet (2:06:49) is a former Seoul marathon winner. He also won the Shanghai marathon in 2012 and contested his last nine marathon races in China but will be running in Liupanshui for the first time.
Teimet's compatriot Kimutai Sanga is another man to watch with a PB of 2:06:07 registered back in 2011. The 35-year-old has been struggling to return to his best form in recent years with injuries being his main bottleneck.
