Dubai: The athletics world will finally get the chance to see Gladys Cherono make her marathon debut when the reigning World Half Marathon Champion takes on the challenge of the 2015 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on January 23.

Her debut at the classic distance has been eagerly anticipated not only because of her half marathon World Championship win in March last year in Copenhagen, but also because her performances on both track and road have regularly been world-class.

In 2013, she became the tenth fastest half marathon runner of all time when she set a personal best of 1:06:48 in Prague, while in the same year she also claimed 10,000-metre silver in Moscow at the World Championships.

Now, at 31, the Kenyan star, who holds a 10,000 metres personal best of 30 min 29.23 sec, will at last make her marathon debut after an injury in the build-up forced her to withdraw from last year’s Berlin event.

And the eyes of the athletics world will be on her as she takes on a field of experienced marathon campaigners over one of the world’s quickest courses.

For Cherono, who became the first woman to win both 5,000 and 10,000-metre gold at an African Championships in 2012, it is the perfect opportunity to stamp her name on the marathon.

“The women’s line-up is incredibly strong this year,” said Event Director Peter Connerton. “Everywhere you look there are quality runners and, in Gladys Cherono, we have an athlete who continues to make great progress in distance running. It is a great bonus for the event to have her make the step up to the marathon distance here in Dubai and in such a powerful field.”

With less than two weeks to go, marathon staff are already at work on the start and finish area outside the Dubai Police Academy as grandstands go into place. More than 25,000 runners are expected to gather for the marathon, 10km Road Race and 4km Fun Run.

Anybody who would like to take part can still register online only at www.dubaimarathon.org.

Among the stars set to line-up on January 23 are three-time Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele, 2013 men’s winner Lelisa Desisa, 2011 and 2012 women’s winner Aselefech Mergia and defending women’s champion Mulu Seboka.