from Sports Ireland Barbara Sanchez, will be going to the Prague International Marathon in two weeks to seek qualification for the world Championship in Moscow in August.
Fastest Marathon runner in 2013, and European qualifier for 2014, Barbara has been tailoring her training in her last chance to qualify for the world championship with her coach.
After her impressive run in Sevilla Marathon with a 2h37min14 she ran another Great time of 2h38min41 in Rotterdam Marathon leading the Marathon Mission Team crew to a 9th International place.
Prague Marathon will be the last chance to qualify for Ireland. Athletics Ireland imposed an A standard on 2:32 for women for the World Championships although it seems likely that B standards of 2:36 for women will be accepted with only one man and one woman travelling.
With a top 10 Elite women International athletes in sub 2h30 the race will be a high International standard, with expected race record to fall. Everyone in Prague will look forward to welcoming the much-exalted 35-year-old Kenyan Lydia Cheromei. A teenage sensation who won the World junior cross-country title at the age of 13 before competing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as a junior athlete, Cheromei has reinvented herself in recent years as a top marathon runner.
In 2011 she broke the course records in Prague for both the Half-marathon (67:33) and Marathon (2:22:34). Last year she improved her Marathon PB to 2:21:30 in Dubai and finished fourth at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships.
It’s also worth watching out for two other Kenyans – Caroline Rotich, winner of last month’s New York Half Marathon, and 2009 World Half-marathon silver medallist Philes Ongori, who will be competing in just her second ever Marathon after impressing on her debut in Rotterdam last year with victory in 2:24:20.
The Ethiopian squad will be made up of Koren Jelela, winner of the 2011 Toronto Marathon with a 2:22:43 PB, and Ehitu Kiros, who smashed her PB by more than 10 minutes to finish second in Dubai earlier this year in 2:23:39.
ELITE FIELDS
Men:
Albert Matebor (KEN) 2:05:25
Mariko Kipchumba (KEN) 2:06:05
Benjamin Kiptoo 2:06:31
Yonas Kifle (ERI) 2:07:34
Teshome Gelana (ETH) 2:07:37
Julius Karinga 2:08:01
Girmay Birhanu (ETH) 2:08:11
Philemon Limo (KEN) 2:09:25
Julius Lomerinyang (KEN) 2:12:13
Amanuel Mesel (ERI) debut
Women:
Lydia Cheromei (KEN) 2:21:30
Koren Jelela (ETH) 2:22:43
Caroline Rotich (KEN) 2:23:22
Ehitu Kiros (ETH) 2:23:39
Philes Ongori (KEN) 2:24:20
Azusa Nojiri (JPN) 2:24:57
Selomie Getnet (ETH) 2:25:15
Tatyana Aryasova (RUS) 2:26:13
Yulia Ruban (UKR) 2:27:10