Dubai: A band of ever-favoured African runners are aiming to challenge their European colleagues at the sixth edition of the Dubai Women’s Run 2016 to be held on Friday.

Held under the patronage of Shaikh Ahmad Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of the UAE Athletics Federation (UAE AF), the course for the race will open at 6am while the actual run will start at 7am at Skydive Dubai.

The event — to be held in collaboration with the Nike Fitness Fest — will feature a 5km and 10km race with the top-place finishers sharing a part of the Dh100,000 in prize money put forward by the UAE AF.

And for yet another year, this race features a handful of foreign runners, including five from African nations and another six from Europe. Joining this elite field will be at least ten athletes from the UAE junior national squad along with UAE-based expatriate runners.

“I am here to win this race,” confided Uganda’s long distance runner in Rio, Stella Chesang, who has a personal best of 32.10 minutes over the 10km mark. Winner of the World Mountain Running Championships in 2015 and the Ugandan Cross Country Championships earlier this year, Chesang is targeting a sub-32 minute time on Friday.

“Coming here for the first time can have its advantages, and one huge element is that I know nothing about the opposition I will be up against. This will just help me focus on my race, and the result will hopefully follow,” she said.

Her team-mate Mercyline Chelangat is also in the fray with a best time of 33.01 over the distance. “I will definitely go all out for a win. I am hopeful of challenging Stella for the title. And even if that doesn’t happen we can at least hope for a one-two finish in the race,” Chelangat said.

Joining her will be Bibiro Ali Taher of Chad. “I think I am good enough to challenge the best runners in any field,” the diminutive runner said.

“I have been doing some high-altitude training and I am sure this will be good enough for me to get the top position,” added the flag-bearer for her country at this year’s Rio Games.

Madagascar’s Marie Elaine Saholinirina, who represented the former French colony at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is also hopeful of being among the top finishers.

“I don’t see any opposition before me as this is my first time [in] Dubai. I have prepared well for this race and I am confident I can finish with a strong time in first place,” she said.

Challenging the African hold in the race will be the Europeans led by the Armenian duo of Stella Tamrazyan and Lilit Harutyunyan, the Czech Republic’s Kristina Maki and Simona Vrzalova and the Serbian duo of Biljana Cvijanovic and Ana Risticevic.

“I expect a fast pace during the race from the African runners. But I have come well prepared and hopefully I will go one better this year,” said Cvijanovic, who had come in second place in 2014.

Her teammate, who is returning from an injury, is looking at using the run as an ideal preparation for next year’s Serbian Half Marathon. “I am looking at a top-10 finish,” she said.

This year’s run will have a start and finish at Skydive Dubai while the entire course has been chalked around The Walk, JBR.