Marathon world-record holder Dennis Kimetto will race for the first time over the distance against the man whose name he scrubbed from the record books, fellow Kenyan Wilson Kipsang, at the Virgin Money London Marathon in April.
Organisers yesterday announced an incredibly strong line-up for the April 26 race. Debutant Kimetto and defending champion Kipsang will also take on Ethiopian track great Kenenisa Bekele and Kenya's 2011 champion Emmanuel Mutai, who became the second fastest marathoner in history when he finished second to Kimetto in Berlin last September.
Having finished a disappointing eighth on his debut over the distance in 2014, Mo Farah has no marathon plans this year, focusing instead on defending his 5,000 and 10,000 metres crowns at August's World Championships in Beijing.
Kimetto became the first man to run 26.2 miles in under two hours and three minutes when he clocked 2hrs 2mins 57secs in last year's Berlin Marathon.
That performance saw the 30-year-old, who also won the 2013 Tokyo and Chicago Marathons, knock 26 seconds off the record Kipsang set in the same race the previous year.
"I broke Wilson's world record in Berlin last year and now I want his London Marathon crown," Kimetto said.
"I am relishing the chance to face my friend over the famous course. I know it won't be easy but I am confident I can go the distance, whatever he throws at me."
Kimetto and two-time London Marathon champion Kipsang train together in Iten in the Great Rift Valley, but have never raced in a marathon together.
Kipsang, looking to become only the fourth man to win three London Marathon crowns, said: "I would love to join the London Marathon legends by winning a third title.
"London always has the best fields but with Dennis in the line-up this year, it promises to be a bruising battle. I certainly won't give up my title without a fight, but let's see who has the knock-out blow."
Bekele, the 5,000m and 10,000m world-record holder and three-time Olympic champion, will make his London Marathon debut. The race will be his fourth over 26.2 miles.
He has a best of 2:05:04, set in winning in Paris last year, but that ranks him only ninth fastest on the list of entrants.
Scott Overall and Steve Way, the 40-year-old former drinker and smoker, will lead the British challenge.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article