Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, Brigid Kosgei will attempt to win her third successive women’s title at the London Marathon that will be held on Sunday (3) in the Streets of London.
The 27-year-old, who is recovering from the heat and humidity of Sapporo in Japan in early August, is likely to face considerably cooler and damper conditions in the British capital.
The worry is whether she has recovered and rediscovered sufficient fitness given the short turnaround since the Games, where she finished in second place behind Peres Jepchirchir.
“My body was very tired after the Olympics but I did a lot of preparation to correct this and now I have come to London to do my best,” said Kosgei, who took only a couple of days off after her marathon at the Games before getting back into training.
On claiming a hat-trick of titles in London this weekend, Kosgei added: “I love London so I would really like to do that here. I am ready as I have prepared well as I want to defend my title.”
Mary Keitany, who retired a few days ago, won London three times in recent years – the latter with a women-only world record of 2:17.01. This is a natural target for Kosgei, who holds the outright women’s world record with with a time of 2:14.04 that she got at the 2019 Chicago Marathon.
Paula Radcliffe also won three London Marathon titles, but Katrin Dörre from Germany will be remembered in history books as the only woman who has won the race back to back from 1992 to 1994.
Kosgei won her first London crown two years ago in 2:18.20 but then returned last year during the pandemic to win an elite- only race in 2:18.58.
The World women record-holder was speaking at the pre-event press conferences in a hotel just outside Windsor along with rival runners Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya and Birhane Dibaba of Ethiopia after they had arrived on a charter flight from east Africa.
The East African elite athletes were carried in a special flight which was arranged by the race organizers due to the pandemic.
Jepkosgei is the reigning New York City Marathon champion while Dibaba is a two-time winner in the Tokyo Marathon.
Facebook Comments