Kenneth Mungara lines up in Milan City Marathon

Veteran Kenyan marathoner Kenneth Mungara has three-time London Marathon champion Martin Lel to beat as he seeks to retain his title in Milano City Marathon on Sunday in Italy.

Mungara has won 11 marathon races, including Prague (2008), Mumbai (2009), Singapore (2010) and Nairobi (2013) but has a personal best of 2 hours, 07 minutes and 36 seconds from his second-place finish in Prague in 2011.

Mungara, 42, clocked 2:08:44 to win last year’s race, becoming the 12th Kenyan to reign at the Italian city. Lucy Kirimi won the women’s race in 2:27:35. Mungara’s latest victory was at Gold Coast in July last year where he clocked 2:08:42.

Lel boasts an impressive list of honours. Along with his London Marathon victories in 2005, 2007 and 2008, he also triumphed at the New York City Marathon in 2003 and 2007, won the world half-marathon title in 2003 and finished fifth in the marathon at the 2008 Olympics. His PB of 2:05:15 was set in London in 2008 and was a course record at the time.

The 37-year-old’s most recent podium finish at a marathon came in London in 2012 when he finished second in 2:06:51. Lel, whose younger brother Cyprian Kotut finished second in Milan last year, has run just two marathons since then, finishing sixth in Honolulu in 2013 and ninth in Dailan last year in 2:16:27.

Among the other top runners who could be in the battle for the top three, are 21-year-old Samuel Rutto, who won the 2014 Turin Marathon in 2:10:00, 20-year-old Ernest Ngeno, who won the Hengshui Marathon last September in 2:07:57, and Ishmael Bushendich, who won the Toronto Marathon last year in 2:09:00.

Kenya’s Duncan Kibet holds the course record of 2:07:53 from his victory in 2008.

Kenyan women will be hoping to uphold their record. Their hopes are on Rachel Kosgei, who made her marathon debut in Danzhou last year, clocking 2:40:16, and Brigid Kosgei’s sole marathon to date was a 2:47:59 run in Porto last November.