INQUIRER Sports

A KENYAN VICTORY looks imminent as six world-class bidders from the athletics powerhouse vie in the maiden run of the Quezon City International Marathon on Oct. 18 starting at the Quezon Memorial Circle.

Daniel Kipkemei Koringo, Wilson Songkok, Gilbert Kipkemoi and Samuel Tarus Too and female runner Lydia Joritich will headline the field, which is expected to breach 10,000.

The 42K race, which dangles a winner’s purse of P300,000, begins at the Quezon City Memorial Circle and will pass through the UP campus in Diliman, Commonwealth, Fair-view, La Mesa Dam and Trinoma Mall before finishing at the Memorial Circle, said QC marathon publicity head Ron Delos Reyes at the PSA Forum Tuesday.

With their solid credentials, organizers believe the Kenyans are capable of eclipsing the best time set on RP soil by Germany’s Waldermar Cierpinski, a two-time Olympic champion, who clocked 2 hours 14:27 minutes in the 1982 Manila International Marathon.

“These Kenyan runners could surpass the time of Cierpinski,” said Art Disini, chair of the event organizer Runnex.

The 24-year-old Koringo is coming off a victory in the recent Malakoff 26-K run in Penang, Malaysia, while Songkok has a personal best of 2:17.52.

The 27-year-old Kipkemoi enhanced his reputation when he topped the 22-K Adidas King of the Road event in Malaysia, while Too won the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon three years ago.

Jerotich finished second in the Army Half Marathon in Singapore and wound up third in the Songhla Marathon in Thailand.

The country’s top marathoner, Eduardo Buenavista, has yet to confirm his participation in the event.