Third leg of GROE to be crucial in determining relay race winners

Mumbai, Jan 17 (UNI) The third leg of the Standard Chartered Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) 2006/07, the Mumbai Marathon, is set to take place on January 21, with another fine line-up of world class athletes.

After the first two stages in Nairobi and Singapore, the teams currently at the top will be looking to their third leg runner to extend their advantage over the chasing pack. With half the series already completed, the pressure is on the athletes to record a quick time for their team in an effort to win a share of the 1.5 million dollar prize pool, the highest in world athletics.

GROE is a relay of four Marathons in the cities of Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong, and sees athletes take on some of the world's most difficult running conditions - including altitude, heat, humidity and punishing inclines. Athletes compete in teams of four, running one marathon each, working together to strive for the fastest cumulative time. The series sees over 30 countries compete in what is becoming the 'World Cup of Marathons'.

In fifth place in the Nations Challenge are home team India, just a minute ahead of local rivals Sri Lanka. Running for India in Mumbai will be Nathuram, who set his personal best of 2:24:43 in this marathon last year.

In what has proved to be a particularly close Main Team Challenge so far, there are less than five minutes covering the top eight teams. Currently in first place in the race for the 400,000 dollar top prize is Marathon Centre Kericho, with a combined time so far of 4:35:55, just 53 seconds ahead of Posso Nyahururu.

There will be five athletes in the GROE line-up in Mumbai who have clocked under 2 hours 10 minutes in their careers, all of whom will be looking to push their teams into the top five prize-winning positions. The fastest in the field is Ethiopian Gashaw Melese Asfaw, running for seventh-placed team Akaki, who recorded his personal best of 2:08:03 in winning the Paris Marathon last year.

Another winner in Europe last year was Kenyan Mandago David Kipkorir. He ran a personal best of 2:08:38 to win the Rome Marathon, and most recently managed a second place when he competed in Beijing in October. Kipkorir will be competing for the second year running in Mumbai for his team Rosa e Associati 2, and will be hoping to go one better than the second place he achieved last year.

The strength of the all-women teams competing in the GROE Women's Challenge has also been in strong evidence so far, with GROE runners filling the top three places in both the Nairobi and Singapore Marathons. The Cyclone team have a significant advantage over the chasing teams, with their two athletes so far having smashed the course records in both marathons. Jennifer Chesinon will take the baton on for them in Mumbai and hope to extend their current lead of nine minutes over second-placed Grazy Girls.

A specially-commissioned Gold Baton trophy - a 9 carat, 300 gram, solid gold relay baton - awaits the winners of the Nations Challenge, which has become a breeding ground for young marathon talent around the world.

Currently in the lead are Uganda, who will be represented in Mumbai for the second successive year by Alex Malinga. Last year he finished eighth in the overall marathon, which followed an impressive sixth place in the 2005 World Championships Marathon in Helsinki in a personal best time of 2:12:12.

Reigning champions Kenya are in second place, having halved Uganda's lead to two minutes in Singapore. Just half a minute behind, and completing the African top three in the GROE Nations Challenge, are Zimbabwe. They will be represented by Michael Ngaseke, who achieved his personal best time of 2:12:53 in the 2004 Berlin Marathon. Ngaseke is set on improving his time in Mumbai last year of 2:16:10, when he finished seventh.

There are six regional competitions within the Nations Challenge, each of which has its own separate prize pool. Defending their leads heading into the Mumbai Marathon will be: Indonesia in South East Asia; Taiwan in North East Asia; Mexico in the Americas; Australia in Europe&Oceania; and Uganda and India in Africa and South Asia respectively.

UNI