A Chinese woman runner and an Ugandan man put their Kenyan counterparts on notice that their dominance in the long distance races will be coming under check in future as the Nairobi Marathon ended in Nairobi on Sunday.

However, despite the stiff competition displayed in the Standard Chartered sponsored marathon, the first leg of the Greatest race on Earth (GROE), debutant Kiprop Rotich, a forest guard in Aberdare Forest in central Kenya, won the fourth edition in the fastest time ever recorded in Kenya of 2 hours 10 minutes 17 seconds on a flat course in the outskirts of the Kenyan capital.

The GROE race, which is becoming the unofficial "World Cup of Marathons", features over 80 teams and 300 selected elite participants competing for the top prize. The race covers marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Bombay and Hong Kong, the organizers said.

Irene Jerotich, a 26-years-old from a running camp deep in the Marakwet hills of northern Kenya which produces some of celebrated Kenyan distance runners, took the women's title in 2:32:42.

At least Chinese Zhang Xin, second in the women's race and Ugandan ace Alex Malinga, third in men's divisions, put Kenyans on notice that in future they will always face worthy opponents.

The 18-year-old Zhang is from China's northeastern province of Liaoning. She has been training for marathon for over two years. Her performance surprised many elite runners and the organizers because she took part in the race with a foot injury.

Zhang is the only non-Kenyan in the top 10 women winners in this year's Nairobi full marathon.

Ugandan ace Alex Malinga, a previous winner of Mombasa marathon, denied Kenyans a complete podium finishes by finishing third in 2:13:06. Malinga is the only non-Kenyan in the men's top 10 winners.

In the 21-km half marathon, Philemon Baaru, a Nyeri town shopkeeper, raced to beat a host of contestants. "This is my biggest win. I am now planning to run in the 2007 World Cross Country Championship," Baaru who clocked 1:06:03 said.

Moses Kororia, who made his second appearance in the third edition of the race, said the race was his stepping-stone to a career in Europe. He finished second.

The Nairobi Marathon, sponsored by the Standard Chartered Bank, was created in 2004 with the inaugural event slated as a charity event in which participants raised funds for onward donations to hospitals.

Bank executives said about 15,000 runners took part in the race this year in Nairobi.

The second of the race in Singapore is dubbed the "Island Race", which is scheduled on December 3. And the Bombay bit of the race is called "the Historic Race through Bombay" and is slated for January 21, 2007.

"This race was the hardest. It was difficult to keep pace of the more experienced Kenyan runners," said Gede Gugti, an Indonesian runner who topped the list of the runners from the Asian region.

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)