A look ahead to Sunday’s Lloyds Bank Cardiff Half Marathon which expects a record number of runners

Jess Coulson is to make her debut over 13.1 miles as she leads the entries for the Lloyds Bank Cardiff Half Marathon on Sunday.

The event, which incorporates the British Half Marathon Championships, also hosts the penultimate stage of the Run Britain Grand Prix.

Coulson, the 2012 European under-23 cross-country champion who has clocked an impressive 52:53 for 10 miles, will be joined in the Welsh capital by Kenya’s 2013 Bath Half Marathon champion Perendis Lekapana and her compatriots Joan Chelimo and Gladys Yator, who make it a tough field for the 24-year-old Briton.

Last year’s British champion, Tish Jones, returns to Cardiff to try to defend her title, having improved her PB to 72:55 in Reading in March.

Rebecca Robinson, who has a best of 73:22 and has competed for Britain at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, could also be at the head of the field, along with Emma Stepto, the 2013 Bristol Half Marathon winner.

Loitarakwai Lengurisi of Kenya will return to try to defend his men’s title, while another Kenyan, Boniface Kongin, will be seeking to improve on his third from last year.

Also in the field are Uganda’s Ben Siwa and Britain’s Phil Wicks, who has run 62:51 for the distance. Tom Payn and Neil Renault could also challenge.

It is expected that next year’s Cardiff Half will host the trials for the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, which will take place in the city in March 2016.

A record 21,000 entries should make this year’s event the second-largest half-marathon in the UK after the Bupa Great North Run, with more than 2 million expected to be raised for charity.

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