Michael Githae will spearhead Kenya's hopes for victory at the Fukuoka Marathon scheduled for December 6 in Japan

Githae has a personal best of 2:09:21 and will have Paul Kiura (2:11:38) and Silas Kingori, who is making his debut, for company.

Kenya has a superb record in the event with former world marathon record holder, Patrick Makau winning twice and Martin Mathathi, Joseph Ndambiri and Samuel Wanjiru winning once each.

Japan will be well represented by Ryu Takaku, who set a big PB of 2:06:45 in Tokyo earlier this year. He is the fastest in the field. The 27-year-old is the fourth-fastest Japanese runner ever and will be making his second appearance in Fukuoka, having raced there in 2018.

Yuma Hattori, winner of the 2018 Fukuoka Marathon, will be back in the Japanese city looking for his second victory. His last race over the distance was at last year’s Marathon Grand Championships, where he finished second to gain selection in Japan’s Olympic team.

Yuki Kawauchi, the 2018 Boston Marathon champion, will be making his 11th appearance in Fukuoka in what will be his 104th career marathon. A prolific racer, Kawauchi's last race over the distance was nine months ago— his longest break between marathons since 2010.

Taku Fujimoto finished second in Fukuoka last year and will be looking to go one better this time round. He set his PB of 2:07:57 when finishing eighth in Chicago in 2018 while earlier this year, he clocked 1:00:06 at the Marugame Half Marathon, moving to second on the Japanese all-time list. Six other men in the field have PBs faster than 2:09.

posted Thursday October 29th
by William Njuguna