It is time for Cheserek to write history at Sunday's Valencia Marathon

From left, Edward Cheserek, Brian Kibor and Meshak Lelgut train at the Kipchoge Stadium in Eldoret Uasin Gishu County on Monday. November 27, 2024. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

This Sunday, big shots will gather in Spain for the 2024 Valencia Marathon and Kenyan stars will be hoping to make history.

The Kenyan charge will be facing defending champions, Sisay Lemma and Amane Beriso both from Ethiopia in a race that features a strong field.

Edward Cheserek is among Kenyan men contending the title of a race where compatriots have previously pulled huge surprises.

For Cheserek, the first University of Oregon freshman to win a National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) title in 2013, Valencia Marathon will be the contest to record a personal best.

He has been training together with a team of athletes at the KIPRUN management in Iten and hopes to end the year in style in Valencia this Sunday.

“We have been preparing for Valencia Marathon for the last two months and the ill has been seamless. I have been training with my team mates and I think we are ready to go,” Cheserek said ahead of his departure to Valencia.

In the Sunday contest, Cheserek, 30, will be paced by two of his training mates, Lille 10km runner-up Meshack Lelgut and Brian Kibor, and he feels that the pacing would push him to his main target – a PB.

Cheserek, who placed eighth at the 2023 New York City Marathon hopes the flat Valencia course, is going to be less tough.

“The pacesetters will push me up to 30km and after that, I will try to gather more energy to finish,” said Cheserek.

He feels being paced by training mates will offer him comfort during the race.

“The pacesetters are the people we have trained with and lived with and they are going to help me out. They are like my brothers and family and when they put the pace high, I can handle them because I feel I am home with them,” he added.

A number of athletes who will be making their marathon debuts in Valencia are likely to take much of the attention in their quest to pull surprises.

Among the debutants is World Road Running half marathon champion Sabastian Sawe, a man seen a strong contender for the 2024 Valencia Marathon title.

Sawe has contested nine half marathons so far, and consistently dipped under 60 minutes, with a strong 58:02 personal best.  Others are Mathew Kimeli and Hillary Kipkoech.

World half marathon silver medallist Daniel Mateiko is another Kenyan star to watch this Sunday.

Like Sawe, Mateiko has been consistent at the 21km distance, having run under 59 minutes in seven competitions.

After winning last year’s contest in a course record, the Sisay Lemma  star is returning in a bid to retain his title but he will have to overpower a talented field including a seemingly ceaseless marathon great Kenenisa Bekele - a three-time Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion.

Hillary Kipkoech, a 59:22 half marathon performer, was one of Lemma’s pacemakers in 2023, and on Sunday the duo will be competing for the top honours.

The Spanish race has established a strong track record when it comes to delivering some of the fastest marathon times on the globe.

In 2022, for example, the late Kelvin Kiptum clocked 2:01:53, the third fastest time in history during that period while Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso ran 2:14:58 to claim the current women’s course record, and last year compatriot Sisay Lemma became the fourth-fastest marathon runner of all time when he set a new 2:01:48 course record in the men’s category.