Obiri, 32, is making not only her New York but her marathon debut, but her formidable career on the track, where she has earned two world 5,000 metres titles and two Olympic 5,000m silver medals, and in cross-country, where she won the world title in 2019, makes her a serious contender for victory.

Ethiopia’s world champion and 2021 Berlin Marathon champion Gotytom Gebreslase will also have high hopes for the weekend and says: "My goal, like any other race, is to win."

Gebreslase’s personal best came in the World Championships in Eugene, where she set a Championships record of 2hr 18min 11sec.

Asked what kind of time she had in mind, Obiri replied: "I can’t say I want to run 2:17 because for me it’s my first marathon, but I want to see how fast I can go."

Only one past winner - Kenya’s 42-year-old 2010 champion Edna Kiplagat - will feature in the women’s race.

The veteran cannot be ruled out, given that, aged 37, she won the Boston Marathon and added silver to her two world gold medals.

Another hugely experienced runner who will be confident of making her mark will be Israel’s 33-year-old Lonah Salpeter.

Last summer in Tokyo she appeared to be heading for the Olympic podium until she dropped back dramatically to 66^th over the final four kilometres, due to what she later explained had been menstrual cramps.

She underlined her continuing competitiveness in Eugene this summer as she took bronze behind Gebreslase.

Also making her New York debut will be home runner Aliphine Tuliamuk, the Olympic Trials winner, who races her first marathon since dropping out of the Olympics seven months after childbirth.

Des Linden, 39, the last US woman to win a major marathon thanks to her 2018 result in Boston, is also in good form and looking to impress.

Chebet, the reigning Boston Marathon champion, is the fastest man in the race thanks to his best of 2:03.00 and is favourite to win in what will be his New York debut.

Chebet’s coach Claudio Berardelli, translating his comments, said: "He would like to reach 30km with good feelings and then to start putting his mental focus in approaching 35 and then from there, if he feels okay, to do something similar to what he did in Boston, to try his chances to go and win the race."

But Chebet will have to run to his full potential to dislodge the defending champion, compatriot Albert Korir, who announced this week: "I came here to defend my title."

Home followers will be hoping that the back problems suffered by Rio 2016 bronze medallist Galen Rupp, which almost stopped him finishing when he contested this summer’s World Championships in his backyard of Eugene, Oregon, have eased sufficiently for him to make an impact.

He says the extra time he has had to prepare before what will be his New York City marathon debut has made a significant difference to his preparations.

Also very much in the frame will be Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata, who won the London Marathon during the 2020 lockdown, catching world record holder Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya on a rare off-day, and two other men who have run sub 2:05, in Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Abdi Nageeye of The Netherlands and Daniel Do Nascimento of Brazil.

Kenyan men have won the first five Abbott World Marathon Majors races this year - Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, and Chicago - and have the opportunity to complete the first sweep since 2011, which Kenyan men also achieved with five wins before Tokyo was added as a major.

Double Paralympic marathon champion and defending champion Marcel Hug of Switzerland has been truly on a roll in recent months, winning in Chicago and then taking the London title by two seconds from Daniel Romanchuk after the American had stuck unwaveringly to his wheels for the second half of the race before trying to hustle past him.

Romanchuk, 24, who won the Paralympic 400m T54 title in Tokyo last year and took bronze in the marathon, was third in New York in 2021 after becoming the youngest athlete ever and first men’s American wheelchair racer to win the event in 2018, before repeating his effort in 2019.

This year, he has won the Boston Marathon.

The two men meet again in the Big Apple and it will be fascinating to see what tactics are involved as Hug seeks his fifth New York title.

In the women’s race Australia’s Paralympic and Commonwealth champion Madison de Rozario, who had to scratch at late notice from the London Marathon because she was unwell, will be hoping everything goes according to plan as she defends her title against a field that includes veteran home racer Tatyana McFadden, the multiple world and Paralympic medallist, and Switzerland’s three-time New York winner Manuela Schar of Switzerland.