Rwanda’s long distance icon Disi Dieudonne has confirmed his intention to defend his title in the Glo-Lagos International Half Marathon due on February 21, 2009. Competition for the grand prize is getting more intense as top international athletes jostle to register for the event.

Three- time world Half Marathon record holder, Lornah Kiplagat of Netherlands, recently confirmed that she will be running the Half Marathon even as last year’s overall winner, Disi Dieudonne is already training to defend his title he won last year.

Kiplagat and Disi will join about forty other elite runners who have sent in their request to feature in the Half Marathon.

Kiplagat was born in Kabiemit, Kenya, but migrated to the Netherlands in 1999 where she became a Dutch citizen in 2003 and has run for the Netherlands since then.

The 34 year-old Dutch long-distance runner who runs both road and track races currently holds the world records in 5000 meters and 20,000 meters on the road, and the half marathon.

She has scored many firsts in athletics including being the first woman to win both the Falmouth Road Race and the Peachtree Road Race.

The world champion, who will be making her first outing in Lagos is a veteran of major city marathons like the Amsterdam Marathon, the Rotterdam Marathon, the Osaka Marathon and the Los Angeles Marathon.

Kiplagat would have to contend for the female prize with athletes like Lineth Chepkirut who picked the star prize with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes 6 seconds, in 2007.

Disi on his part won the first Glo Lagos International Half marathon with a time of 1 hour, 3 minutes and 5 seconds.

Ends