Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw will aim for a third women’s victory in four years at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon on Sunday which is live on the BBC iPlayer and sport website from 09:30 BST.

Race director James McIlroy has also enticed former London Marathon and New York Marathon winner Joyciline Jepkosgei to the women’s field so Yehualaw, amid apparent recent competitive inactivity, may not have it all her own way on the course in and around Larne.

Yehualaw, now 25, thought she had broken the world half marathon record at the Northern Ireland race in 2021 as she clocked 63 minutes and 44 seconds only for it to be subsequently discovered that the course was 54 metres short.

Despite that blow, the Ethiopian returned a year later to win in a course record of 64:21 and she will aim for another victory this weekend.

Yehualaw won the London Marathon a few weeks after her second triumph in Larne but could only finish eighth in the UK capital last April and doesn’t appear to have any competitive outings since then.

Jepkosgei, 30, finished third in London this year after winning the race in 2021 and finishing runner-up 12 months later behind Yehualaw.

The Kenyan’s impressive record in big city marathons includes a victory in New York five years ago.