By John Kwoba
NAIROBI, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The champs from China's Zhengzhou Marathon, Ednah Mukwana and Rebecca Korir (both from Kenya) will lead the women's field at this year's Beirut Marathon on Nov. 11 in Lebanon.
Mukwana, 33, has a best time of 2:30:24 which she ran to take the victory at the Zhengzhou Marathon earlier this year in Central China's Henan province, while Korir has a best of 2:29:16, which she ran to finish third at the Rotterdam Marathon in 2016.
This will be the third marathon for Mukwana in seven months. She was second at the Dalian International Marathon in China in May, where she clocked 2:32:07.
"My target is to run a faster time. I want to run under two hours and 30 minutes and I believe the Beirut course will be good enough to offer me that time. There are also top names in the race, who I expect to push me through," Mukwana said on Friday in Nairobi.
Another elite who will be in contention is Lithuania's Raza Drazdauskaite, a three-time Olympian who clocked 2:29:29 to finish 26th at the London Games in 2012.
Belarus's Sviatlana Kudzelich comes in with impressive form at the shorter distances.
The 31-year-old was a European indoor silver medalist over 3,000m in 2015 and earlier this year she set her half marathon personal best of 1:11:45 in Prague.
Ethiopia will have a trio of strong contenders in the form of Almensh Herpha, Medina Deme Armino and Nigist Muluneh Desta.
Herpa took victory at the Lagos City Marathon on her most recent outing over this distance, while the Ethiopian has had a previous run of good form at the BLOM Bank Beirut Marathon, finishing third in 2016.
The men's field has former Boston marathon champion Wesley Korir returning to competition after two years. Wesley, a politician, is keen to regain his fitness and contest in the marathon distance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
"Everything is going well, I'm trying to get in shape after politics and run full-time again," said Korir on Friday in Nairobi. "Getting a win in Beirut will be a boost for me as I get back to the top level."
Korir will face strong opposition from teammates Ezekiel Omullo and Ben Kimutai and Houston Marathon winner Bazu Worku from Ethiopia.
This year's event will also incorporate the 50th World Military Marathon Championship, which will feature 98 runners from almost 20 countries.
