Posted: January 30, 2004

Athletics: Mens competition heats up for ING Ottawa Marathon

Joseph Nderitu of Kenya will have some exciting competition when he comes to Ottawa in 2004 to compete for his fourth consecutive marathon win.

Joseph, who won in 2003 with a time of 2:15:29 will face his biggest competition in Simertu Alemayhu of Ethiopia, who set his personal best of 2:07:44 when he won the Turin Marathon in 2001, beating the 2001 World Championship bronze medallist in the process.

Strong competition will also come from Kenyan Thomas Omwenga who ran a personal best of 2:17:02 at the Toluca Mexico Marathon at an altitude of 8000ft. and Agustus Kavutu who placed 6th at the 2003 LA Marathon in 2:12:25. Agustus placed second to Joseph at the Bahamas 10K in December.

Two strong debut marathoners in David Ndungu and Mustapha Bennacer, who recently ran half marathons in 1:03:12 and 1:03:11 respectively, will also ad excitement to the race. Don’t miss the action at the finish line on Sunday May 30, 2004.

The race website is at: http://www.ncm.ca.