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Sunday, 28 October 2007:
1215 - 1230 GMT:
APTN's Global Video Wire

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APTN's Global Video Wire

Nairobi, Kenya: Sunday, 28 October 2007

A record number of national teams will take part in the marathon series.

In the early hours of Sunday, 28 October 2007, thousands of participants will congregate at the Uhuru Highway in Nairobi for the start of the fourth series of The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) 2007 - 2008.

The GROE 2007 - 2008 will focus on the Nations Challenge, where a record number of 53 teams from 33 countries have registered. New countries include the USA, Brazil, Peru, Germany, Lebanon, Japan and Russia. For the upcoming series the Nations Challenge prize pool has been increased to a share of 1.08 million US dollars, the largest prize pool in world athletics.

A total of 20 teams have entered this year's Nations Challenge Women. Amongst the athletes in Nairobi are:

* 18-year-old Lu Lu Li from People's Republic of China, who with a personal best time of 02:37:10 trains in Beijing and runs an average of 160km per week.
* Representing Great Britain will be Scottish runner Lucy Colqhoun, who with a personal best time of 02:51:12 started running six years ago. Since then Lucy has run 5 marathons and 3 ultra races, including a 95 mile race in Scotland, where she set the women's record. This year she also ran the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc (86k, 4,500m climb) and was second woman.
* Emily Bates will run for the USA, with a personal best time of 2:49:53. Emily trains in San Francisco, California, and Nairobi will be her first marathon outside the USA. To deal with the altitude in Nairobi, Emily has completed a few long runs in the mountains. She runs 50 to 60 km per week and compliments her training with biking.
* Indian Kailash Chand Bhagwati, who with a personal time of 3:11:27 hopes to run and win the London Marathon one day.

Amongst the 33 teams competing in the Nations Challenge Men are:

* 26-year-old Satya Prakash from India, who with a personal best time of 2:20:38 hopes to win in Nairobi and be able to represent his country at the Olympic Games.
* Darran Bilton with a personal best time of 2:20:49 will represent Great Britain. Darran started running when he was 13 years old and has run the London Marathon seven times. Darran has run marathons all over the world, but never in Africa, so to race in Kenya is a thrill for him. Darran said: "Runners are one family, the world is our running track and Kenya must surely be our Mecca."
* The USA will be represented by 27-year-old Richard Burgunder, who with a personal best time of 2:56:45 lives in New York City and in preparation for Nairobi's high altitude has been running along the Queensboro Bridge a lot, since there's a decent incline on it.

The overall winners of the Men's and Women's Nations Challenge will take away 100,000 US dollars each, as well as the coveted Gold Baton – a 9 carat solid gold relay baton that has come to symbolise the great teamwork needed to win this challenging team marathon relay series. The Regions Challenge competition has also had its prize pool increased to 840,000 US dollars which will be shared among the top three Men's and Women's teams from the six regions of; Europe & Oceania, Africa, South East Asia, North East Asia, Americas, and South Asia & Middle East.

Kenya has won three GROE Nations Challenge titles so far, narrowly beating Zimbabwe in the 2006/07 series to claim first place and win the Gold Baton. With an increase in the number of participating countries and faster average race times, this year's series is set to be more competitive than ever.

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