London: Kenya’s Mary Keitany will run alongside male pacemakers in a bid to break Paula Radcliffe’s longstanding women’s world record in April’s London Marathon, race organisers announced Thursday.

Radcliffe’s time of 2 hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds was set when the now-retired British distance great won the 2003 London Marathon.

However, her time was initially regarded as a ‘world best’ rather than a ‘world record’ by some in athletics because it was set in a race where men were running rather than in a women’s-only event.

Keitany is aiming to become the overall fastest female runner in marathon history on April 22, having set the women’s-only record when she won last year’s London title in a time of 2:17:01. That saw the 36-year-old Keitany beat Radcliffe’s women-only world best of 2:17:42. “The marathon world record is something that I have been working towards for several years,” Keitany said on Thursday.

Agence France-Presse