Betty Chepkwony ready to rock the streets of Dubai in 'dream' marathon

Sunday’s Dubai Marathon shapes up to be an important race for Kenyan marathoner Betty Chepkwony.

Not only will her presence in the shadow of the iconic Burj Al Arab paint her as the sole Kenyan in the women’s marathon, but a race the 28-year-old had only in her dreams.

“It will be important to represent my home country, but this is one of my dream races,” Chepkwony, winner of the 2023 Rome Marathon in March, told LloydBell Productions on Friday. “Having a big name and running in a big race has been one of my goals, and I know it will be a big privilege to run here and prove key for my career.”

On Sunday, her debut appearance in Dubai, Chepkwony noted that her preparations had gone according to plan and added that she was ready to rock the streets’.

“I feel great, well prepared, and ready for the race,” she said with a smile.

Asked about what her thoughts on the Dubai marathon were, the second-place finisher in the 2018 Zurich marathon said: “It is a great, amazing, and fantastic race. The organization is nice, and I like it because it is a fast course.”

Having clocked her personal race in Rome, a race where she had to mount a comeback after falling behind early on to the Ethiopian duo of Zinash Getachew, Mulugojam Ambi, and Jemila Shure before winning in a time of 2:23:02, Chepkwony said that timing another personal record when reaching the Madinat Jumeirah finishing stage was her goal.

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“I want to run my personal best and bring a good time back to Kenya,” she said.

Being an Olympic year—the women’s marathon in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris are scheduled for August 11—Chepkwony hopes that her exploits will at least catch the Kenyan selectors for a place in the summer games.

She was one of the reserves on Kenya's World Athletics Championships team for the women's marathon in Budapest last year.

“I hope that my performances this year will see me chosen for the Olympics, which I’d love to participate in,” she said. “I know that in Kenya it's so competitive, but if it does happen, I would love to line up in Paris.”

Standing in front of her in the first international marathon of 2024, however, will be Rotterdam and Osaka Marathon winner Haiven Hailu Desse of Ethiopia, who holds a 2:20:19 personal best in the nature of a third-place finish in the Amsterdam Marathon in 2019.