The elite field for the 66th Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon on March 06 in Japan has been announced. Eritrean Asmerom Yared, who finished the Lake Biwa Marathon second behind Mubarak Hassan Shami of Qatar in 2008, is listed as one of the favourites for the race.

The field includes world-class Kenyan athete Wilson Kipsang, who run for victory in 2:04:57 in last fall’s Frankfurt Marathon .

Some of the other top men include Merga Deriba of Ethiopia, El Hachimi Mohamed of Marokko, Musinschi Laroslav of Moldavia and Kangogo Moses of Kenya.

The first Mainichi Marathon was held in 1946 and was organized by the Mainichi Newspapers and the Japan Association of Athletics Federation.

Since then the race has been held annually and has constantly served as a qualifying event for major championships such as the Olympic Games, World Championships in Athletics, the World University Games, and Asian Games.

TOKYO — Ethiopian long distance legend Haile Gebrselassie will lead a strong field at the Tokyo marathon next month as he makes his first major appearance since his cancelled retirement.

The 37-year-old world, who announced his retirement in November last year only to reverse the decision days later, set the world record for the marathon in Berlin in 2008 with a time of two hours, three minutes 59 seconds.

Organisers said his main rivals will include Felix Limo of Kenya, who set his personal best of 2:06:14 winning the 2004 Rotterdam marathon, and Yemane Tsegay of Ethiopia, whose best is 2:06:30 when he finished fourth in the 2009 Paris marathon.

Gebrselassie said a knee injury and his failure to finish the New York marathon earlier in the month were the reasons for his unexpected — and short-lived — retirement from athletics.

The Tokyo marathon on February 27 will be his first major appearance since then.

Kenya’s Paul Biwott and Salim Kipsang are also expected to pose a threat with their best times of 2:07:02 and 2:07:29, while Ethiopia’s Hailu Mekonnen has a best time of 2:07:37.

Other major athletes will be Tadesse Abraham of Eritrea and last year’s Hokkaido marathon winner Cyrus Gichobi Njui of Kenya, while hosts Japan will send Masakazu Fujiwara, Arata Fujiwara and Satoshi Irifune.

The women’s race will include Nuta Olaru of Romania, Russia’s Tatiana Petrova and 2008 Los Angeles marathon winner Tatiana Aryasova, Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco and Olena Burkovska of Ukraine with local hopes resting on Yoko Shibui.

AFP

MONACO (AP) — The IAAF has ratified two world records set by Zersenay Tadese. The Eritrean runner broke both the 20K and half marathon records in Lisbon on March 21.

Tadese ran the half marathon in 58 minutes, 23 seconds, breaking Kenyan Samuel Kamau Wanjiru’s mark by 10 seconds. Tadese also completed 20K during the same race in 55:21, which beat the previous mark of 55:48 set by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie in 2006.

The IAAF also ratified a new world indoor record in the women’s 3,200 relay. A Russian quartet set a time of 8:12.41 in Moscow on Feb. 28.