By, Len Johnson WA Today

THE arrival of three Ethiopian athletes yesterday in Australia boosted hopes of a race record in tomorrow’s Melbourne marathon.

Asnake Fekadu, Terefe Yae and Yared Mekonnen landed in Melbourne early yesterday morning after organisers had been left in the dark as to whether they had collected the necessary visas and connected with their booked flights.

Fekadu, the fastest of the three, has a personal best of two hours, 10 minutes and 26 seconds and ran 2:11.04 behind world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie in Dubai in January.

He has a credible chance of breaking the Melbourne race record of 2:11.08, set by American marathoner Bill Rodgers in 1982.

Yae and Mekonnen have best times of 2:11.43 and 2:14.16 respectively.