Okayo and Kastor for London, plus pacemakers

The Flora London Marathon announced today that a group of four top international athletes will challenge Paula Radcliffe at their race on 23 April.

According to a report in Race Results Weekly, Margaret Okayo, the petite Kenyan who has won the ING New York City Marathon twice and both Boston and London once, will be Radcliffe's chief rival. She has a 2:20:43 career best time, set at Boston in 2002 when she beat Catherine Ndereba and set the still-standing course record.

American Deena Kastor, the reigning LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon champion and U.S. record holder with a 2:21:16 personal best, will also be in the field, along with the woman she defeated in Chicago, world championships bronze medalist, Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania. Tomescu-Dita, also the reigning world half-marathon champion, is the Romanian record holder with a career best 2:21:30.

The rest of the field includes Ludmila Petrova of Russia (2:22:33 PB), Susan Chepkemei, of Kenya (2:23:12), Mari Ozaki of Japan (2:23:30), Selina Kosgei of Kenya (2:24:32), Mara Yamauchi of Great Britain (2:27:38), Eri Hawakaya of Japan (2:28:50), Berhane Adere of Ethiopia (2:41:50), and Galina Bogomolova of Russia (2:31:54).

The race also announced that as in the 2004 edition of the event, the early-start all-women's elite race will use male pacemakers to "help the competitors to fast times," according to a media release. In the 2003 and 2005 versions of the race at London, the elite women ran exclusively with other women.