Clay­ton Clarke

Kenyan run­ners George Towett and Jude Kimu­je will seek to main­tain the East African hold over the ninth an­nu­al UWI SPEC Half Marathon at St Au­gus­tine this morn­ing (6 am).

De­fend­ing Towett will be seek­ing his third ti­tle af­ter win­ning last year and in 2007. The Kenyans copped the first two places in 2007, 2009 to 2011 and took five of the last six edi­tions.

In 2011, 27-year-old Towett fin­ished ahead of Si­mone Sawe. One year ear­li­er, Sawe and Al­fon­so Yatich fin­ished one-two ahead of lo­cal run­ners Richard Jones and Den­zel Ramirez. Yatich edged Sawe for the 2009 crown while Towett and Ernest Kimeli placed first and sec­ond in 2007. Kemili ran away with the 2006 race in a new course record of 1 hour 5 min­utes 6.9 sec­onds (1:05:06.9).

Ugan­da's Nicholas Kir­prono in­ter­rupt­ed the Kenyan streak in 2008, tak­ing the top prize ahead of Cleve­land Forde (Guyana). Sawe was the top Kenyan then and fin­ished in sixth po­si­tion.

Richard Jones has been the most con­fi­dent lo­cal run­ner in re­cent years with five top-five fin­ish­es in the last six years (2011-5th, 2010-3rd, 2009-4th, 2008-5th, 2007-6th, 2006-4th). Cur­tis Cox has al­so placed in the top ten in re­cent times and has com­pet­ed in all nine edi­tions of the 13.1 mile race (2011-7th, 2010-6th, 2009-8th, 2008-7th, 2007-7th, 2006-6th). Mi­a­mi-based vet­er­an Ron­nie Ho­lassie, Matthew Ha­gley and Den­zel Ramirez are all ex­pect­ed to bat­tle for the top spots.

The Kenyan women made their de­but last year and swept the top three places as Leah Kir­jen won ahead of Lucy Kir­gat and Kimu­je. This year, Kimu­je will be aim­ing to re­turn the tro­phy to Kenya.

Tonya Nero is the top lo­cal la­dy in the field and will be seek­ing to be­come the first T&T win­ner of the event since Sher­min Lasal­do in 2007 and will al­so be aim­ing to im­prove on her fourth-place fin­ish in 2006. Nero set a new na­tion­al record of 1:15:13 at the World Half

Marathon Cham­pi­onships in Bul­gar­ia ear­li­er this month. Ce­line Lestrade, Ke­ma Mc­Shine, Ker­tisha John, Paulette Luces, Chris­tine Reg­is, Janelle Nedd and Nicole Budd will be among the women to watch.

Close to 1,000 run­ners will line up for the start at 6 am in front of UWI Sports and Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­tre on St Au­gus­tine Cir­cu­lar, St Au­gus­tine. The run­ners con­tin­ue on the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route up to La Re­source in D'Abadie and back down to UWI SPEC for the fin­ish.

The bus route will be closed off to ve­hic­u­lar traf­fic dur­ing the race. The 13.1 mile run will be elec­tron­i­cal­ly timed and is cer­ti­fied by the As­so­ci­a­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Marathons and Dis­tance Races (AIMS). It is al­so ac­cred­it­ed by In­ter­na­tion­al Am­a­teur Ath­let­ics Fed­er­a­tion (IAAF) and sanc­tioned by the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tions of Ath­let­ic Ad­min­is­tra­tion (NAAA).

First Cit­i­zen's Bank and the Min­istry of Sports are the ma­jor spon­sors of this year's race. Over $150,000 will be on of­fer in prize mon­ey with the top male and fe­male set to re­ceive US$2,000 each. A fur­ther US$1,000 will be award­ed for a new course record (men-1:05:06.9, women-1:12:07.6). The top UWI, UWI Staff, UWI St Au­gus­tine Alum­ni, First Cit­i­zen Staff, and top lo­cal will al­so re­ceive spe­cial prizes. Age group win­ners will al­so we re­ward­ed.

There will al­so be health booths for spec­ta­tors at the Heart Ease Car Park and Ed­die Hart Grounds where ba­sic BMI, blood pres­sure and blood glu­cose lev­el test­ing can be done free of charge. These be­ing done cour­tesy the Min­istry of Health.

This year's race will be streamed live on: www.odessey­tim­ing.com/ls_uwi2012.php.

RE­SULTS (2011)

MEN

Course record: 1:05:06.9 - Ernest Kimeli (Kenya)

1. George Towett - USA - 1:06:42

2. Si­mon Sawe - USA - 1:08:03

3. Cleve­land Forde - Guyana - 1:08:55

4. Stephen Tanui - Kenya - 1:08:59

5. Richard Jones - T&T - 1:09:00

7. Cur­tis Cox - T&T - 1:12:09

8. Matthew Ha­gley - T&T - 1:12:44

9. Jules La Rode - T&T - 1:15:00

10. Er­rol Williams - T&T - 1:15:38

WOMEN

Course record: 1:12:07.6 - Jem­i­na Sum­gong (Kenya)

1. Leah Kir­jen - Kenya - 1:19:54

2. Lucy Kir­gat - Kenya - 1:21:03

3. Judy Je­fire Kimu­je - Kenya - 1:23:06

4. Fi­raya Zhadano­va - Rus­sia - 1:29:48

5. Ke­ma Mc Shine - T&T - 1:30:48

6. Ce­line Lestrade - T&T - 1:31:00

7. Ker­tisha John - T&T - 1:34:11

8. Chris­tine Reg­is - T&T - 1:34:56

9. Janelle Nedd - T&T - 1:36:24

10. Nicole Budd - T&T - 1:41:08