London Marathon: Kenyan champions Kosgei and Chepngetich face off

The London Marathon on Sunday will be a battle of the Kenyan titans as Brigid Kosgei, who holds the women's marathon world record takes on world Champion Ruth Chepngetich.

Kosgei won the Chicago Marathon last year in a record time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds.

But this year's race will be different due to coronavirus. The London Marathon has been reduced to elite runners only and will have no spectators.

It will also be a 26.2-mile looped course.

"Due to this pandemic I cannot say I will run this or this because most of the coronavirus affected us so that we didn't do a lot of training enough last year. So we just - I want to try my best on Sunday," said Kosgei.

Chepngetich echoed her Kenyan teammate’s concerns about training.

“When this pandemic of coronavirus arrived to Kenya, we were very disappointed because our training was hindered,” she said. “Everyone goes to his home to train alone. Everyone was training in isolation, alone.”

Despite the restrictions this year, the battle between the two best female marathoners promises to be a crowd-pleaser even if from afar.

Tokyo was the only other World Marathon Major to be held in 2020 after Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York all cancelled.