Athletics: Delhi run set aside for Big Apple

Kimberley Smith will run the New York Marathon on November 7 instead of attending the Delhi Commonwealth Games in October.

Smith doesn't want to compete in the Indian capital because of security and health concerns but has no problem racing through New York's boroughs of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. She ran there in 2008 in her debut marathon attempt but pulled out ill.

"I know the course pretty well having run part of it before. It is harder and hillier than London but I've got more time to prepare than the 9-10 weeks I had coming straight off the Beijing Olympics [she was ninth in the 10,000m]. Doing well in New York would mean a lot."

Smith began her training this week, 17 weeks out from the race, after running 2h 25m 21s to finish eighth in the London Marathon on Anzac Day. That broke Allison Roe's New Zealand record, set at Boston in 1981. Roe set a faster time when she won the New York Marathon (a then-world record) only to have it expunged because the course was 150 metres short.

Smith is looking for a mark about 2h 23m this time but knows around 2h 20m is needed to be in medal contention at the London Olympics in two years.

"I was happy with my London effort, especially seeing I ran the last half of the race alone. It's tough in marathons like that and New York where the small field of elite women have a separate start. It would be easier for me if all athletes were together.

"The worst thing is you don't realise you're slowing down when you're by yourself ... but you do. I need to stay with those leaders."

Smith will continue to train in her adopted hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. A diet focused more on vegetables has helped ward off some of the regular illnesses suffered in the past when she could be counted on to chow through pizza and anything else that might sustain her 49kg frame through running more than 150km a week.

"I'm trying to eat healthier and cook more for myself which is hard to do when you're burning so much fuel."

Smith is joined in the field by former college rival and Beijing 10,000m bronze medallist Shalane Flanagan - the American is running her maiden marathon. Ethiopian double 10,000m Olympic gold medallist and men's marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie will also race in New York for the first time this year.