Je­lani Beck­les

De­fend­ing T&T In­ter­na­tion­al Marathon cham­pi­on Juan Car­dona Rios of Colom­bia will aim for an­oth­er ti­tle when the 34th edi­tion of the race runs off from St Mary's Junc­tion, Freeport, to­mor­row, from 5 am.

Be­fore the run­ners be­gin their jour­ney to White Hall around the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, the walk­ers will start their trek from 3.30 am.

Rios, who won last year's event in two hours, 21 min­utes and 13 sec­onds (2:21:13), will com­pete against some fa­mil­iar faces. Last year's third place fin­ish­er Mark Chep­ses of Kenya (2:22:17) will chal­lenge for the crown again, while vet­er­an T&T run­ner Cur­tis Cox will have to im­prove on his time from last year if he wants to fin­ish on top. Cox fin­ished sev­enth last year in a time of 2:48:12, be­hind Guyanese Kelvin John­son (2:40:18) who has con­firmed his par­tic­i­pa­tion.

In the women's cat­e­go­ry, Leah Ki­gen of Kenya will be one of the favourites. Ki­gen was third last year in 3:00:16. It is not def­i­nite if de­fend­ing women's cham­pi­on Truphena Bus­ieni of Kenya will com­pete to­mor­row. Some of the oth­er coun­tries that will be rep­re­sent­ed at the marathon are St Lu­cia, USA, Cana­da, Great Britain and Spain.

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) Bri­an Lewis and his team will walk the marathon to raise aware­ness and funds for the #10Golds24 Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund, which was cre­at­ed in 2015 to sup­port the na­tion's ath­letes. The goal of the TTOC is to win ten or more gold medals by the 2024 Olympic Games.

Lewis has got­ten the sup­port of lo­cal en­ter­tain­ers as pop­u­lar so­ca artiste Fay-Ann Lyons-Al­varez and a team of oth­er en­ter­tain­ers will com­pete in the Marathon Re­lay. The Marathon Re­lay is a new edi­tion to this year's event as it al­lows be­tween two to six peo­ple to join forces to com­plete the 26.2 mile jour­ney. Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, his wife and chil­dren will al­so sup­port the TTOC cause by com­pet­ing in the Marathon Re­lay.

Reema Car­mona, wife of Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona, will com­pete with a team of run­ners in the Marathon Re­lay al­so. Car­mona is an avid run­ner, com­pet­ing in many events such as the UWI Half Marathon.