World marathon record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya will compete in this year's 8th Media Marathon Bogota to be held in the Colombian capital of Bogota later this month.
Tergat will take the opportunity to promote the United Nation's World Food Program, for which he works as an "Ambassador Against Hunger", the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) said in a news release on Wednesday.
"My career can be traced back to the World Food Program's school feeding program in Kenya in my youth, which enabled me to attend school and later go ahead to discover and develop my running career, just after high school," said the two-time IAAF World Half Marathon champion.
"The opportunity to act as an Ambassador Against Hunger lets me register my appreciation for it's impact on my life, while at the same time enabling other children to benefit from it in the future."
The Kenyan marathon star will face stiff challenge from fellow countrymen, Patrick Makau who has a 58:56 best time for the half marathon, Joseph Kahugu (a 2:07:59 marathon best), and Isaac Macharia, who ran 1:00.53 last year in Luxembourg.
Tergat, the former holder of the world record for the half marathon (59:17 in Stramilano, 1998) and a two-time IAAF world half marathon champion (1999, 2000), is expected to threaten the men's event record of 1:03:51 set back in 2001 by Peruvian Jose Castillo.
The women's division also has a strong line-up of Susan Chepkemei of Kenya, the former three-time world half marathon silver medallist who is also women's event record holder (1:10:39 in 2004).
Chepkemei will face Claudia Camrago (Argentina) who lives in the United States, Tatiana Aryasova (Russia), Neriah Asiba (Kenya) and Lioudmila Kortchaguina who won her third Canadian marathon title at the ING Ottawa Marathon this past May.
The international elite field will join 45,000 athletes participating in the half marathon and accompanying 10K, making it one of the world's largest road races, and certainly the largest at very high altitude - Bogota is 2,600m above sea-level.
Source: Xinhua
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