Lagat, Alemu return to Tata Mumbai Marathon

Defending champions Cosmas Lagat and Worknesh Alemu will return to Tata Mumbai Marathon, which will be held here on January 19.

Kenya's Lagat won the event last year in decisive fashion, when he broke away from the rest of the leading pack around 29 km into the race.

He clocked 2:09:15 in 2019, the second fastest winning time in the history of the Mumbai Marathon.

Having come home just 40 seconds outside the course record of 2:08:35, set by his compatriot Gideon Kipketer in 2016, Lagat will be back on the start line in Mumbai, motivated not only by the possibility of pocketing another USD 45,000 first prize cheque, but also the USD 15,000 on offer for a course record.

"My Mumbai Marathon win was my best race of 2019, so I have fond memories of running in India. The experience I got running this race last year will be very important this time," Lagat was quoted as saying in a media release.

"Coming so close to the course record, I have thought about what I can do to improve, and I think I can run the first half of the race faster than I did last year," he said.

The four fastest men in the field are all Ethiopians, led by Ayele Abshero who has a personal best of 2:04:23, and although that was almost eight years ago when he won the Dubai Marathon, he showed that he is still a competitive runner by coming second in the Hamburg Marathon at 2:08:26 last April.

Like Lagat, Ethiopia's Alemu upset the pre-race form book in 2019 and won in Mumbai in a personal best of 2:25:25.

She improved her best to 2:24:42 later in 2019, by finishing sixth at the Amsterdam Marathon in October.

Alemu heads a strong women's field that has eight women who have run under 2:28:00.

The fastest women in the field is another Ethiopian, Amane Beriso, who had a stunning marathon debut when she ran 2:20:48 for second place in the 2016 Dubai Marathon, which placed her third on world list that year.

All the leading women will have as their target the course record of 2:24:33 set by Kenya's Valentine Kipketer in 2013.

Meanwhile, around 50,000 runners will take to the roads in Mumbai for six different races.

In addition to the full marathon, which has a total prize fund of USD 405,000, there is a half marathon, a 10-km race, a Dream Run (5.9 km), Senior Citizens race (4.2 km) and a Champions with Disability race (1.5 km), the release stated.