by Brett Larner Updated 1/29/13: Masashi Hayashi (Team Yakult) and Takehiro Arakawa (Team Asahi Kasei) have withdrawn. The Feb. 3 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon announced on Jan. 16 that London Olympics marathon 6th-placer and 2:08:53 man Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) will head the elite field for its 62nd running. Japan's most stable and successful current male marathoner, Nakamoto said in pre-race comments that he hopes to score his first marathon win on home Kyushu ground in Beppu-Oita, and with the race's results counting toward 2013 World Championships team selection the win would strengthen the position his strong Olympic showing has already given him. Nakamoto's toughest domestic competition will come from the ever-popular Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) in his second marathon of the year, and from Masashi Hayashi (Team Yakult) who broke 2:10 for the first time at last spring's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon just over a minute behind Nak...
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