New York: Geoffrey Mutai will try to become just the third man to win the New York City Marathon three times in a row on Sunday.

The last man to accomplish the feat was Alberto Salazar in 1980, ‘81 and ‘82.

Another American, Bill Rodgers, won four straight titles in New York immediately before Salazar’s run, while Mutai’s two wins to date came in 2011 and 2013 — with the 2012 edition cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy.

Kenya’s Mutai will be trying to make it three-for-three in New York, hoping to rebound from a 2:08.18 at the London marathon where he finished sixth in a race won by Wilson Kipsang.

The occasional training partners will clash again, with Mutai hoping to take advantage of Kipsang’s inexperience on the New York course to reassert himself over a rival he has beaten in four of their five head-to-head meetings.

Kipsang was eclipsed as the world’s fastest marathon runner just a few weeks ago when Dennis Kimetto and Emmanuel Mutai ran under Kipsang’s previous world record of 2:03:23 at the Berlin Marathon.

The hilly, demanding course, predicted windy weather and lack of pacesetters make New York unlikely to produce a world mark.

But Kipsang will hit the streets of the Big Apple for the first time buoyed by the fact that he has won his last two marathon starts, in Berlin in 2013 and in April, when he shattered the London course record.

With a win in New York, Kipsang could overtake Kimetto for the World Marathon Majors series bonus of $500,000.

“It’s not a big pressure for me so much because many of the guys, we are really racing together,” he said. “So it’s just a matter of running my own race and targeting really to win.”

Ethiopian contenders Lelisa Desisa and Gebre Gebremariam are also contenders. Desisa won his marathon debut last year in Dubai in just under 2:05, and followed up with a 2013 Boston Marathon win.

Desisa dropped out of this year’s Boston Marathon at the 40-kilometer mark, but won a half-marathon in October.

Gebremariam, 31, won the New York Marathon in 2010.

Reigning World and Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich, a 25-year-old Ugandan, could also be a factor.

Kiprotich finished down in 12th in last year’s NYC race.

“My problem was speed, and I have been working on it,” Kiprotich said.

America’s best hope lies with Meb Keflezighi, the 39-year-old who won the Boston Marathon in April.

It was an emotional victory for the naturalised American, coming a year after the finish-line bomb attacks left three dead and 264 injured in a rain of shrapnel.

“People chanting ‘USA, USA, Go Meb,’ it was the moment of a lifetime,” Keflezighi said. “America needed me. I delivered.”

Priscah Jeptoo, who won last year’s race in 2:25:07, withdrew from the her title defence in October with a leg injury she suffered in the London Marathon.

That opened up a women’s field featuring Kenyan Mary Keitany and Ethiopia’s Buzunesh Deba.

Keitany, 32, hasn’t participated in a marathon since the London Olympics and gave birth to a baby girl in February.

“What I can say is that my body has done well in the 10K and half marathon,” she said.

“On Sunday we will see if I am fit enough and if my body has resumed back as it has for the 10 kilometre.”

She’ll be challenging for the course record of 2:22:31, set by Margaret Okayo back in 2003.

In the second of her London Marathon wins in 2012, Keitany clocked a blistering 2:18:37, which was the fastest time since Paula Radcliffe ran a sub-2:18 back in 2005. Debt was runner up to Jeptoo last year in 2:25:56.

It was the second time in as many years that Deba finished second in New York, and she also finished second in Boston this year in 2:19:59.