Defending champion Abraham Kiplimo, of Uganda, will start as the favourite for the 64th edition of the Beppu-Oita Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, on Sunday (1). Last year, Kiplimo had the race of his life on Japan&rsquo;s roads and won the 2014 Beppu-Oita Marathon title with 2:09:23, a prelude to him taking the bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.If Kiplimo win on Sunday, he will be the eighth runner in the history of the race to become a multiple winner. Two other runners in the elite field have sub-2:10 personal bests and, at least on paper, they appear to be Kiplimo&rsquo;s main competition.Ethiopia&rsquo;s Fekadu Lemma recorded 2:09:50 in the 2012 Hamburg Marathon and Japan&rsquo;s Yoshinori Oda ran 2:09:03 in the 2011 Tokyo Marathon. However, neither Lemma nor Oda have not run a good marathon lately. Oda&rsquo;s latest marathon was 2:15:46 in the 2014 Lake Biwa Marathon, while Lemma was injured in 2014 and did not race internationally all year.The main rival to Kiplimo could be Eritrea&rsquo;s Tewelde Estifanos, who is a runner on the rise. He ran in the 2013 Beppu-Oita Marathon on his debut over the classic distance and finished 11th with 2:16:13. Since then he has run two more marathons, both in Australia, and each time improved his personal best. In his next marathon, the 2013 Gold Coast Maratho, he improved his best to 2:13:10. A year later, in October 2014, he finished second at the Melbourne Marathon with 2:11:47.&nbsp; If this trend continues, Estifanos could even go under 2:10 range, which may be enough to challenge Kiplimo.&nbsp; He also excels at the shorter distance. His half marathon personal best is 1:01:39 from 2011 and he finished ninth at the 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. Another invited overseas runner, Morocco&rsquo;s Abdelmajid El Hissouf, is making a marathon debut. He has a half marathon best of 1:02:47 in the 2014 Marrakech Half Marathon.&nbsp; Besides Oda, four other domestic runners have been invited. The quartet are: Taiga Ito, who has a best of 2:11:15 from 2013 Tokyo Marathon; Ryoichi Matsuo, who&rsquo;s best is 2:12:11 from 2014 Nobeoka Marathon; Keisuke Wakui, who ran 2:12:12 in the 2014 Tokyo Marathon; and Naoki Okamoto, who has the best of 2:12:31 from the 2012 Lake Biwa Marathon. Obviously, all these runners will need to improve if they are theoretically to challenge Kiplimo but it should be noted that Matsuo and Wakui both recorded their personal bests in 2014 and may be on the rise as well.&nbsp; Although, not among the invited runners, Kenya&rsquo;s Daniel Njenga and the Japanese trio of, Yusei Nakao, Yuko Matsumiya and Yusuke Takabayashi also deserve a mention.Now 38, Njenga has the marathon best of 2:06:16 while Nakao was fifth at the 2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. Matsumiya has the marathon best of 2:09:18, albeit recorded back in 2005, and Takabayashi has a 10,000m best of 27:56.46 and half marathon best of 1:01:31.The course record is 2:08:15 and was set by Japan's Yuki Kawauchi in 2013.&nbsp; Ken Nakamura for the IAAF

Defending champion Abraham Kiplimo, of Uganda, will start as the favourite for the 64th edition of the Beppu-Oita Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, on Sunday (1). 

Abraham Kiplimo bidding to defend his Beppu-Oita Marathon title

Kentaro Nakamoto, one of Japan&rsquo;s most reliable marathon runners in recent times, will face last year&rsquo;s winner Abraham Kiplimo at the Beppu-Oita Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, on 1 February.Nakamoto has finished in the top 10 in the marathon at the past three global championships. After finishing 10th at the 2011 IAAF World Championships, he improved to sixth at the 2012 Olympics and fifth at the 2013 World Championships.Kiplimo, meanwhile, has only run four marathons to date, one of which was at last year&rsquo;s Commonwealth Games where he took the bronze medal for Uganda.Both athletes have set their PBs on the Beppu-Oita course; Kiplimo clocking 2:09:23 when winning last year, and Nakamoto running 2:08:35 to finish second in 2013.The only time they have raced against each other previously was at the 2013 World Championships, when Kiplimo finished 14 places behind Nakamoto. But the one advantage Kiplimo holds over Nakamoto is that he knows what it feels like to win a marathon; Nakamoto&rsquo;s best finish to date over the classic distance is second.If Kiplimo wins again, he will join a select group of seven athletes who have won the Beppu-Oita race more than once.Yoshinori Oda, who joined Nakamoto on the Japanese team for the 2011 World Championships, is also in the field. He has a PB of 2:09:03, set on his marathon debut four years ago.The fourth sub-2:10 man in the field is Ethiopia&rsquo;s Fekadu Lemma. The 30-year-old was out of action in 2014 but had made big strides forward in 2012, reducing his PB by almost five minutes with a 2:09:50 clocking in Hamburg. Beppu-Oita will be his first marathon since that season.Other internationals in the field include Eritrea&rsquo;s Tewelde Estifanos and Morocco&rsquo;s marathon debutant Abdelmajid El Hissouf.Kenya&rsquo;s 2:08 man Laban Mutai and Great Birmingham Run winner Joel Kimutai will act as pace makers as the athletes aim to challenge the course record of 2:08:15 set by Yuki Kawauchi in 2013.IAAF<h3>Elite field (with PBs)</h3>Kentaro Nakamoto (JPN) 2:08:35 Yoshinori Oda (JPN) 2:09:03 Abraham Kiplimo (UGA) 2:09:23 Fekadu Lemma (ETH) 2:09:50 Taiga Ito (JPN) 2:11:15 Tewelde Estifanos (ERI) 2:11:47 Ryoichi Matsuo (JPN) 2:12:11 Keisuke Wakui (JPN) 2:12:12 Naoki Okamoto (JPN) 2:12:31 Abdelmajid El Hissouf (MAR) debut

Kentaro Nakamoto, one of Japan’s most reliable marathon runners in recent times, will face last year’s winner Abraham Kiplimo at the Beppu-Oita Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, on 1 February.

Nakamoto to face defending champion Kiplimo at Beppu-Oita Marathon

Uganda’s Abraham Kiplimo won the 63rd annual Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:09:23, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, in Japan on Sunday (2). It was a big breakthrough for the 24-year-old Kiplimo, the first Ugandan to win the Beppu-Oita Marathon and his first ever win outside his native Uganda despite regularly running in Europe and elsewhere since 2010. It was a personal best by more than four minutes and although he had run two marathons before, including finishing 19th at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, he had not finished even in the top 10 before. “After 35km, I found myself in the front by accident so I just decided to continue pushing. I know the Japanese are very strong so I had to keep pushing and not give up," said Kiplimo."I learned from my training partner Stephen Kiprotich, the current Olympic and World Champion, he is assisting me with advice," added the winner. "Maybe my next marathon I can run 2.07 or faster depending on weather conditions and course, I am confident" The race started in a very foggy weather with the temperature around 13 degrees Celsius but with no wind and a huge pack of approximately 30 runners passed 5km in 15:19, nine seconds slower than the organizer’s instruction to the pacemakers. However, the pace picked up a bit over the following five kilometres and 10km was reached in 30:23.After passing 15km in 45:27, however, the pace slackened again and the 20km split was 60:54, with the half marathon point reached in 1:04:12, although the course record of 2:08:15 set last year by Yuki Kawauchi was still obtainable.At 24km, Kazuhiro Maeda, a 2:08 runner and one of pre-race favorite, started to drift back and at the same time the big leading pack started to break apart. By 28km, nine runners were left in the lead pack. Imai attacksAfter 30km, passed in 1:31:34, the last pace makers dropped out and Japan’s Masato Imai moved to the front and surged.Mongolia’s Ser-Od Bat-Ochir was the first to cover the move, followed by Kiplimo and Ethiopia’s Gezahegne Abera and by 32km, the lead pack was reduced to these four runners.&nbsp; After 33km, Imai relinquished his place at the front and left Abera and Kiplimo to share the lead before the latter made his move just after 34km.He quickly built up a commanding lead. At 35km, with a split of 1:46:54, Kiplimo was five seconds ahead of Imai while &nbsp;Bat-Ochir and Abera were starting to drift back. At 37.5km, Japan’s Ken-ichi Shiraishi, a making his marathon debut, passed Bat-Ochir to move up into third but ahead of them Kiplimo kept on pulling away from Imai. &nbsp;By 39km, he was 15 seconds ahead of Imai.On the uphill part of the course after 40km, Imai started to close the gap, but fell short by seven seconds at the finish. and came home second in a personal best of 2:09:30, the first &nbsp;sub-2:10 marathon of his career and almost a minute faster than he had ever run before."I noticed that Imai was close as the spectators where clapping and cheering all the time," reflected Kiplimo, after a tense final two kilometres.Shiraishi, who was not even an invited runner finished third, with 2:10:36 on his marathon debut while Bat-Ochir &nbsp;finished fourth in 2:10:59, the second fastest marathon time of his career. Kenya’s ile Jason Mbote, the fastest runner in the field with two sub-2:08 times to his name and another three under 2:09, finished a disappointing seventh with 2:12:44. Ken Nakamura for the IAAF

Uganda’s Abraham Kiplimo won the 63rd annual Beppu-Oita Marathon in 2:09:23, and IAAF Silver Label Road Race, on Sunday (2). 

Abraham Kiplimo gets biggest win of his career at the Beppu-Oita Marathon 

Uganda’s Abraham Kiplimo won the 63rd annual Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:09:23, and IAAF Silver Label Road Race, on Sunday (2). 