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Olympic marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir is upbeat ahead of her maiden appearance in the TCS New York City marathon tomorrow.

During the race that will also mark New York Marathon’s 50th Anniversary, the long distance runner will be competing against a star-studded field at the World athletics Elite Platinum Label Road Race.

Jepchirchir, a two-time World Half Marathon champion, won gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games clocking after returning an impressive time of 2:27:20.

Her personal best marathon time over the distance is 2:17:16 she attained in Valencia. In 2017,  Jepchirchir set the world record in the half marathon after being timed at 65.06minutes at Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) course.

She has reckoned that this season, she is keen to show what is up her sleeves and especially after the athletics calendar was disrupted due to the COVId-19 restrictions, adding that she hopes to make a mark in the 50-year old event.

“The 50th year of anything is branded as the Golden Anniversary and now that the New York Marathon will be observing five decades of existence, it will be a special race for me and hopefully, I will excel to make Kenya proud,” said Jepchirchir.

She added: “I will have a reputation to protect as the Olympic gold medalist and I will have achieved part of my dreams by winning it,” she said.

 In the 2019 Saitama marathon, Jepchirchir broke her own record to 2.23.50 in the event which was her third and her first since returning to action from maternity leave.

Three years before the feat, she won the World Half marathon championships in Cardiff in the United Kingdom after 67.31 minutes.

Meanwhile, New York city marathon silver medalist Albert Korir will be returning to the New York City Marathon with an aim of making a podium finish.

Korir, who finished second at the 2019 New York City marathon behind fellow Kenyan champion Geoffrey Kamworor, will be returning to the course, this being his first outing since 2019 when the first Coronavirus case was reported.