The Great Australian Run is quickly establishing itself with a reputation for being the event to bring the world's greatest distance runners to Australia, with the announcement today by the organisers that the two most recent men's Olympic marathon champions, Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru and Italian Stefano Baldini, will contest next month's event.
Last year's event featured a run away win in the 15km race by the greatest distance runner in history, Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie.
Wanjiru and Baldini captured their Olympic titles in differing fashions, with Wanjiru's consistently fast paced Olympic record of 2:06:32 on the flat Beijing course contrasting sharply with Baldini's more traditional, tactical victory over an undulating course in Athens. Wanjiru's approach to the marathon, which has coincided with a breakthrough number of athletes running under 2:06 over the past 12 months, has him boldly predicting that he will not only break Gebrselassie's world record of 2:03:59, but be the first man to break two hours for the marathon.
?These goals are still both within my reach. I?m only one minute and 11 seconds off the world record and I believe I can break the two hour mark within the next five years. I must believe in it,? said the 22 year old, who already holds the world record for the half marathon at 58:33.
This weekend Wanjiru will start as favourite for the Chicago marathon, and despite a line up which includes two sub 2:06 marathon runners, he remains confident of his chances in the ?windy city?.
?I am in good shape and I?ll try to run fast,? said Wanjiru, on what is likely to be his final race before the Great Australian Run.
Baldini, who at 38 is coming to the twilight of his career, competed against Wanjiru twice last year, at the London marathon and then at the Olympics, and holds his rival in high regard.
?Samuel is the present and future. He is young but also an experienced athlete because he started his international career very early,? said Baldini.
?I think he is the only athlete at the moment able to beat Haile Gebreselassie's world record in the marathon. He only needs a flat course and good race conditions.?
Leading the local charge at the Great Australian Run is Australian 10000m record holder Collis Birmingham, who in last year's event became the first Australian to defeat Craig Mottram over any distance greater than 1500m since 2001.
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