If Girmay Birhanu and Meselech Melkamu live up to their status as favourites at the Daegu International Marathon on Sunday (5), it will be the third time that Ethiopians have won both races at the IAAF Silver Label Road Race.Last year, at the sixth edition of the marathon, Ethiopian duo Yemane Tsegay and Mulu Seboka won both races, Tsegay setting a course record of 2:06:51.Although neither of the 2014 champions will defend their titles in the Korean city, Birhanu and Melkamu will hope to uphold their country&rsquo;s honour on Sunday when heavy rain is forecast during the race.Birhanu is the fastest in the men&rsquo;s field. He set his PB of 2:05:49 when finishing third in Dubai last year. In 2013 he finished second in Amsterdam, Rome and Prague, running faster than 2:10 on each occasion.More recently, he won the Beijing Marathon last October and finished eighth in Dubai in January with a season&rsquo;s best of 2:08:56.His toughest opponent looks set to be Kenya&rsquo;s Commonwealth silver medallist Stephen Chemlany. The 32-year-old enjoys running in Korea, having finished second in Seoul last year with a PB of 2:06:24.Chemlany has faced Birhanu once before, at the 2013 Rome Marathon. Birhanu finished second there, one place and 19 seconds ahead of Chemlany.The one advantage Rachid Kisri will have over the field is that he has raced in Daegu before. The 40-year-old represented Morocco in the marathon at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in the same city, finishing 11th; his best performance from his five global championships appearances.Although Kisri&rsquo;s PB of 2:06:48 dates back to 2009, he ran 2:10:54 and 2:10:57 last year in Ottawa and Xiamen respectively. At 20 years old, Belay Kassaw is exactly half Kisri&rsquo;s age. The Ethiopian set his PB of 2:08:18 in Dubai last year, finishing eighth. Later in the year, he made it on to the podium in Melbourne, running 2:12:34.Uganda&rsquo;s Phillip Kiplimo is more at home on hills, having won the 2013 world mountain-running title, but he is an accomplished road runner too. He finished six places behind Chemlany at last year&rsquo;s Commonwealth Games. His highest finish in a marathon came on Asian soil, finishing second in Hofu last year.Kiplimo isn&rsquo;t the only global champion in the field. 2005 world half-marathon champion Fabiano Joseph Naasi of Tanzania has completed just two marathons to date. His most recent one was at last year&rsquo;s Commonwealth Games, where he finished 11th, behind Chemlany and Kiplimo.<h3>Melkamu seeking second marathon win</h3>Since running 2:21:01 on her debut at the distance to win in Frankfurt three years ago, Meselech Melkamu is yet to win another race over the classic distance.The 29-year-old is the most decorated athlete in the field. On the track, she won the 2004 world junior 5000m title, the 2009 world 10,000m silver medal and the 2008 African 5000m title. She is also a five-time world cross-country bronze medallist.Melkamu, who last year finished second in Dubai and fifth in Boston, has competed in Daegu before, albeit on the track; she finished fifth in the 10,000m at the 2011 World Championships.Sultan Haydar heads to Daegu in the form of her life. She started the year with a half-marathon PB of 1:09:49, and then broke her own Turkish marathon record with 2:24:44 in Dubai. It was her second appearance in Dubai, having finished 10th in the race last year, eight places behind Melkamu.Melkamu&rsquo;s fellow Ethiopian Dinkinesh Mekasha is also in the field. Already this year she has successfully defended her Mumbai Marathon title. A consistent performer with three sub-2:30 marathons last year, the 30-year-old set her PB of 2:25:09 when finishing fourth in Paris in 2013. Judith Toribio finished third in Daegu last year, setting a PB of 2:29:51. It was the 33-year-old&rsquo;s second appearance in the Korean city, having represented Peru at the 2011 World Championships.Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

If Girmay Birhanu and Meselech Melkamu live up to their status as favourites at the Daegu International Marathon on Sunday (5), it will be the third time that Ethiopians have won both races at the IAAF Silver Label Road Race.

Birhanu and Melkamu aim for another Ethiopian double in Daegu

The first IAAF Gold Label Road Race of the year is the 12th Xiamen International Marathon in China and the famous race in Fuijan province with its coastal course promises to be a good one again on Thursday (2).On the men’s side, the course record has been broken for each of the last five years and this year it could tumble again.Once again, it is likely to be a battle between Ethiopian and Kenyan runners and the winners of the last two years are in the race. Ethiopia’s Negari Terfa clocked 2:07:32 for the win, and setting the current course record, in 2013 while Kenya’s Peter Kamais was fastest in 2012 in 2:07:37, with both times being both personal bests as well.The 30-year-old Terfa has a good shot at becoming the first man to defend his crown in Xiamen. He had a perfect record in 2013 adding another fast win at the Rome Marathon in 2:07:56 back in March. There are three athletes in the race with faster personal bests, but Terfa’s previous experience (he was alos eighth in 2012) will also help a lot. His compatriot, 25-year-old Endeshaw Negesse has the fastest best of 2:04:52 from Dubai 2013, where he finished fourth, but he has little expirience of winning really big marathons. The Ethiopian did win in Florence in 2012 in 2:09:59, but this race should be considerably faster.Kenyans Mariko Kiplagat, Nathaniel Kipkosgei and Elijah Keitany all have personal bests under 2:07 and could challenge but none are consistant high level runners.The 38 year-old Kiplagat was seventh in Xiamen in 2013 in 2:10:28 and ran his best 2:06:05 for a win in Reims in 2012, 29 year-old Kipkosgei has only completed one single marathon during his career, 2:06:28 for second place in Eindhoven 2011 when he was supposed to be a pace maker but decided to finish the race and has dropped out of his subsequent marathons while the 30 year-old Keitany has a personal best of 2:06:41 from Amsterdam 2009 and also has a fast 2:06:53 from the same race in 2011 but has not broken 2:09 in the last two years Kamais, now 37, won the Xiamen race in 2012, but his recent form doesn’t suggest that he will be able to regain his title in 2014. He was fifth in the 2013 race in 2:09:53 season’s best but his last performance, 2:13:51 for fifth place in Melbourne three months ago,was not promising.There are six other men with personal betss under 2:10, completing an elite start list of impressive depth: the Moroccan pair of &nbsp;Abdellah Falil (best of 2:08:18) and Rachid Kisri (2:06:48), Kenya’s Julius Muriuki (2:09:08) and the Ethiopian trio of Demise Tsega (2:09:44), Aredo Tadese (2:09:13 ) and Dereje Debele (2:07:48), the latter having run his best time in 2013 when winning in Dusseldorf.There is a possibility that the women’s course record could fall as well in the first major marathon of 2014.Dibaba looking to shave the course recordZhang Yingying’s time of 2:22:38 from 2008 has stood as the mark to beat for six years but Ethiopia’s 24-year-old Mare Dibaba potentially has the credentials to challenge that mark although it will be her first marathon since the London 2012 Olympics Games. Earlier in 2012, Dibaba set her personal best 2:19:52 for third place in Dubai and is by far the fastest runner in the race. Ethiopoian women have won for the last four years and that streak loots set to continue, even if Dibaba falters. Her compatriot, 27 year-old Alemitu Abera comes to China off an unsuccessful 2013 season. Having won in Houston in January 2012 in a fast 2:23:14 personal best, her best marathon result in 2013 has only been a modest 2:33:46 in Boston.Antoher Ethiopian, Emebet Etea, comes to Xiamen from a very different approach having run her best marathon in her last race. Etea, 25, was second in Seoul in March 2013, clocking 2:25:53 personal best and lowering her previous best by almost nine minutes. Completing the astrong Ethiopian contingent, Meseret Legesse (2:26:15) and Biruktayit Degefa (2:27:34) also have personal bests under 2:30. Also in the race is Turkey’s Sultan Haydar who ran a 2:27:10 season’s best in Rome in March 2013 and holds the national record at 2:25:09 from 2012.Orgainsers have made a slight adjustment to the 2014 course in order to make it faster and even more picturesque adding the famous Zhongshan Road through Xiamen's renowned historical district.Mirko Jalava for the IAAF

The first IAAF Gold Label Road Race of the year is the 12th Xiamen International Marathon in China and the famous race in Fuijan province with its coastal course promises to be a good one again on Thursday (2).

Terfa aims for historic title defence and course record at Xiamen Marathon 

The Acea Rome Marathon on Sunday (17) , an IAAF Gold Label race, will be the 19th edition of this popular event which has grown over recent years to become the fastest, and arguably the best, Italian race over this classic distance.Both the men’s and women’s all-comers record were set in the Italian capital, with the men’s course record held by Benjamin Kiptoo with 2:07:17 in 2009 and Russia’s Galina Bogomolova having the women’s mark with &nbsp;2:22:53 in 2008. No less than 14,000 runners from 82 countries are expected to take part in the Rome Marathon: 8000 runners coming from Italy and another 6000 will come from abroad but the competitive races will be an all-African battle between the two leading marathon powerhouses Kenya and Ethiopia in the men’s race, and an interesting fight between Africa and Eastern Europe in the women’s contest. Kenyan runners have won the Rome Marathon 11 times and Luka Lokobe Kanda, the winner of the 2012 edition, will return to the starting line in the famous Fori Imperiali after improving his best from 2:08:40 to 2:08:04 when clinching the Rome title 12 months ago.The fastest man in the field is Ethiopia’s Chala Dechasa, who clocked 2:06:33 in the 2010 Dubai Marathon. More recently he ran 2:08:47 in Rotterdam in 2010 and then 2:09:22 in Dubai 2012. The other sub-2:07 runner in the line-up is Kenya’s Sylvester Kimeli Teimet, who won the 2010 Dong-A Seoul Marathon in 2:06:49. Teimet also won the Shanghai marathon last December.Another serious contender for a top three place will be Ethiopia’s Bekana Tolesa, who has a best of 2:07:04 from the 2011 Houston Marathon. His compatriot Getachew Negari Terfa will run his second marathon in 2013, after clocking a best of 2:07:13 in Xiamen, China, little more than two months ago.There are also five Kenyans to watch out for. Stephan Chemlany clocked 2:07:55 in the 2011 Berlin Marathon, Samson Kiprono Barmao finished as the Rome runner-up last year in 2:08:52 while &nbsp;Jacob Kiplagat Yator, Victor Kipchirchir Lagat and Raymond Kiplagat Kandie all have bests between 2:09 and 2:10.Injury sadly forced the 2012 SPAR European Cross Country Championships gold medallist Andrea Lalli out of the race, in which he was originally planning to make his debut over the 42km distance.Can Europe repel the African challenge?European runners have not won the women’s race in Rome since 2008 but a strong Eastern European contingent may put an end to this barren streak. The last European winner in Rome was Galina Bogomolova who broke the course record of 2:22:53 in 2008 before Fiehiwot Dado began her hat-trick of winning three years in a row between 2009 and 2011This year, the European challenge is led by Turkey’s Sultan Haydar, who finished runner-up in Paris last year with a national record of 2:25:09. The other top European runners to watch are Ukraine’s Tatyana Filonyuk, who clocked 2:26:24 in Rome in 2010 before going on to win the European Athletics Championships silver medal in Barcelona the same year. Russia’s Olga Glock and Belarus’ Nastassia Staravoitava also have personal bests under 2:28. The fastest African runner in the field is Ethiopia’s Ashu Kasim, who set her 2:23:09 personal best when she won in Xiamen in 2012. She will be strongly challenged by Kenya’s Helena Kirop, who has also dipped under 2:24 when running 2:23:37 in the 2011 Venice Marathon.Five other African runners also catch the eye. The Ethiopian quartet of Goietom Haftu Tesema, Sechale Adugna Dalasa, Derbe Godana Gebissa and Eshetu Degefa all currently have personal best times in the 2:26-2:27 range. Kenya’s Hellen Mugo has won marathons in Belgrade, Carpi, Mombasa and Kosice and has a best of 2:27:16 set in 2010. The Rome Marathon boasts one of the most spectacular courses in the world. The race sets off in front of the Coliseum. Runners run across Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Spagna, Piazza Venezia, Circo Massimo through narrow cobblestone streets which make the race very hard but contribute to giving Rome a unique quality among the leading marathon races in the world. More than 500 historic monuments, landmarks and archaeological sites are passed during the race. The Eternal city will be at the centre of the world’s attention this weekend because of the celebrations for the new Pope.The Marathon start has been confirmed at 0930 from the Fori Imperiali although&nbsp; the course does not reach the St Peter’s area in the Vatican City. Alongside the 42km main event, a popular 5 km Fun Race will be staged. The non-competitive Fun Race reached a record of 80000 entries in most recent years. The Rome Marathon is also much more than just a sporting event. Over 50 cultural, music and arts events will take place along the course to add extra interest to the race and to make the atmosphere even more enjoyable. Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

Kanda out to put his rivals to the sword again in the Rome Marathon

The Acea Rome Marathon on Sunday (17) , an IAAF Gold Label race, will be the 19th edition of this popular event which has grown over recent years to become the fastest, and arguably the best, Italian race over this classic distance.