NAIROBI, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Former world and Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich said he does not regret skipping the Commonwealth Games to focus on the Hamburg Marathon.
The Ugandan, who has moved his camp to Kaptagat near Eldoret in Kenya, has joined Berlin marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge in training under their management team Global Sports Communication.
While Kipchoge will be heading to the London marathon on April 22, a week later Kiprotich will try to win the Hamburg marathon after he failed to capture the race last year.
"I want to run a fast time. I have experience running in Hamburg and I know I can improve on my best time and set a new course record," Kipchoge said on Wednesday.
Hamburg has seen its men's course record shattered twice in the recent past. First in 2012 the course record of 2:05:58 was set by Ethiopia's Shami Dawit but Kipchoge set the bar high when he ran 2:05:30 in 2013. Now Kiprotich (2:06:33) says he will be going for the course record.
However, he will face stiff challenge from Kenyans Sammy Kitwara (2:04:28) and Stephen Chebogut (2:05:52) and Bahrain's Shumi Dechase, who won this race in 2014.
Kiprotich capped last year with another second place marathon finish in Fukuoka to add to the silver he picked up in Hamburg.
Kiprotich, who won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, hoped to appear at the Commonwealth Games (April 4-15), but changed his mind to concentrate on the Hamburg Marathon in Germany.
"I opted to leave some competitions for the youngsters to have a chance and also improve on their times," Kiprotich told Xinhua.
