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NAIROBI, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Former World Marathon champion Edna Kiplagat of Kenya is nearing her end in the ultimate distance and is choosing her races carefully.
However, there will be no holding back when she lines up on Sunday at the Chicago marathon course alongside her compatriot and last year's winner Florence Kiplagat in her first appearance in the streets of Chicago.
Edna, 36, has been battling injuries in the last season and has barely competed at the top level. But in her first serious attempt in a big race, she wants her legs to do the talking.
"I have done well in training and what will be important is to win the race," she said on Wednesday in Nairobi.
"But I must be alive to the fact that some younger athletes are pushing hard to take control of the races and I will put in my foot to win the event."
This will be Edna's second race this year after she finished third at the Tokyo marathon in March, but was overlooked for selection to the Rio Olympics by the Kenyan selectors.
"I want to send a message to my critics and Chicago will provide the best platform, though I know there are a number of athletes who will equally good to win the race," she said.
Edna is the only woman to successfully defend her gold medal at the IAAF World Championships, winning in 2011 and 2013. In the 2012 London Marathon she set her personal best time as she joined the women's sub-2:20 club. In only her second world-class marathon she won the 2010 New York City Marathon.
With a victory eight months earlier in Los Angeles it made her the first with wins on both coasts. She earned a 100,000 U.S. dollars bonus there for being the first finisher to the tape as she was given an 18 minute 47 second head start over the men's field.
But that will not count as she returns to USA to try the luck at the Chicago course. One of the contenders keen to cut her run will be Half Marathon World record holder Florence Kiplagat, who is also the reigning champion.
Florence is in a confident mood ahead of her title defence in the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. "I have trained well and I'm ready to face my opponents. It took me long to prepare and I know that good things lie ahead of me," she said.
Kiplagat will face a line-up including team-mates Valentine Kipketer and Visiline Jepkesho as well as last year's runner-up Yebrqual Melese from Ethiopia. Enditem
