A RECORD 809 foreign athletes will compete in the 75th Comrades Marathon on June 16, with 297 athletes hailing from Africa. In the race’s biggest-ever field of more than 23000, Zimbabwe will be the best-represented country with 179 competitors, while the Zimbabwean Harare Athletics Club field 143 athletes. Other African countries with Comrades competitors are Botswana (17), Kenya (2), Lesotho (21), Malawi (3), Mauritius (2), Mozambique (2), Namibia (46), Swaziland (24) and Uganda (1). The two Kenyan runners Benjamin Matolo and Barnaba Talam — both professional athletes from the Chrisley Athletic Club in Nairobi — promise an interesting challenge with marathon entry times of 2:11 and 2:13 respectively. Of the 512 overseas entrants, 127 are from the United Kingdom, 103 from the Unites States and Australia with 86. As in the past five years, a strong Russian contingent will take its place in the field, with 11 men and five women competing. Alexei Volgin, with four previous Comrades gold medals, and Valentina Shatayaeva are the pick of the Russian athletes and both are likely to finish in the top-ten.