NAIROBI, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Mary Keitany of Kenya will have her work cut out for her when she lines up for the London marathon in April.
The Kenyan, who was second at the New York marathon, has already announced her intent to shatter Paula Radcliffe's world record of two hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds, which she set at the London event in 2003.
However, she also has another target of firming her grip on the women's World Marathon Majors (WMM) leaderboard, which will see the winner walk away with 500,000 U.S. dollars.
"I have raced before in London and the crowd supported me. I hope they will be behind me in my challenge and help drive me on to achieve something incredible in London," said Keitany.
The women's open division of the WMM is still open with plenty of contenders for the crown.
Keitany is at the top of the leaderboard with 41 points tied with Chicago marathon winner Tirunesh Dibaba while Rugi Aga is third ahead of Rose Chelimo of Bahrain.
"The course in London has proved before that it can have the world record be broken there and I hope my form and health stay strong and that the weather is kind on the day," she added.
Indeed Keitany showed her form when she was second at the RAK Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates last month.
Kenya's Fancy Chemutai narrowly missed breaking the world record when she won in 64:52, just one second outside Joyciline Jepkosgei's world record.