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.