Kenyans chase 21km world record

• Ras Al Khaimah half marathon organisers confident of fast times in today’s high-profile race

The strong fields at Friday’s Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates hint at the possibility of record-breaking runs.

Despite the men’s field losing Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa through knee injury late last week, the organisers of the lucrative 21-kilometre race are optimistic of a sub-59-minute run last achieved in 2009 by Kenya’s world marathon record holder, Patrick Makau.

Makau won the 2009 race in 58 minutes 52 seconds, then the world half marathon record. beating second-placed Wilson Kipsang by just seven seconds.

And while Makau went on to shatter the world marathon record by running 2:03.38 at last October’s Berlin Marathon, Kipsang fell just four seconds off that mark when he clocked 2:03.42 a month later at the Frankfurt Marathon.

Probable world record

Kipsang is among the field in the UAE where the pacemakers have been tasked to clear the 10km mark in 28 minutes (59:00 pace).

And with the (unofficially) world’s fastest marathoner (2:03.02), Geoffrey Mutai, also in the mix, the organisers cannot be faulted for being over-enthusiastic about a probable world record if the conditions hold.

The winner at last year’s Boston and New York marathons – both in course record times – Mutai, 30, is fresh from a comfortable 82-second winning margin in a preparatory run (63:53 in the San Blas Half Marathon on February 5) and is said to have picked up well at his Kapng’tuny training camp following a two-week post-New York Marathon break in November.

His counterpart as women’s race favourite, compatriot world half marathon record holder Mary Keitany, has had other distractions and the proof of her ability to cope with them begins in RAK.

She got married on December 31, just six weeks ago, and has been training only once a day to feel her way back to full fitness after a momentous 2011 on the roads that saw her RAK run followed by a sub-2:20 run in winning the London Marathon.

Almost 3,000 runners will take off shortly after sunrise on Friday.

Elsewhere, Saturday’s 2012 Sydney Track Classic will feature no less than three reigning Olympic and seven Commonwealth champions, and five world and two world indoor gold medallists.

Leading the charge on the track are Kenyans Asbel Kiprop (1,500m) and David Rudisha (400m), John Steffensen (400m), Sally Pearson (200m, 100mH) and Tamsyn Manou (800m). Collis Birmingham and Craig Mottram will be joining Kiprop in the 1,500m as Rudisha faces opposition from Steven Solomon, Sean Wroe, Ben Offereins and Kevin Moore.

In the field, Valerie Adams (shot put), Stephanie Brown-Trafton (discus), Dani Samuels (discus), Benn Harradine (discus), Fabrice Lapierre (long jump) and Alana Boyd (pole vault) will hope to shine.