By Tim Hutchings

The marathon is difficult to weigh up because there's so little to go on in recent months.

Khalid Khannouchi has the world record in the marathon of 2hrs 5mins 42 and nobody else has broken two hours six and he now runs for the USA not Morocco but has had various injury problems.

But I'm not sure he will be in good enough shape to actually take gold.

Others to watch out for are Abdelkader El Mouaziz, who won in London earlier in the year in 2.07.11. That was his second London victory and in four visits, the has never run outside the top three.

He is very, very consistent and I think he is favourite for this distance.

Others to watch are Leone of Italy, Julio Rey of Spain but Paul Tergat of Kenya will not be racing.

He ran second in London but is holding off his champiopnship debut at the distance.

There's also Antonio Pinto of Portugal who has been very consistent in the past who placed well in the Olympic games in the top 10.

Jifar, the Olympic champion, has had all sorts of problems in his Ethiopian vest and is unlikely to be a factor and this event is wide open.