Kenya's Mutai takes on Olympic champ Kiprotich in Tokyo marathon

Former New York marathon champion Geoffrey Mutai and Dickson Chumba will lead Kenya's assault at next month's Tokyo Marathon.

Mutai, 34, however, is not keen to compete at the World Championships in marathon and will only be using the race to improve on his personal best time of 2:04:15, that he set in Berlin three years ago. Tokyo Marathon will be held on Feb. 28.

"Running the World Championships is not up to me. It is Athletics Kenya (AK) responsibility to select a team. At the moment, I have a program for the year and it starts with Tokyo marathon," Mutai told Xinhua by telephone on Wednesday.

"It is my first time to run in Tokyo, but marathon is always adventurous when competing on a relatively new course and am looking forward to it," he said.

Mutai will come up against Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda, who will be returning to the Tokyo marathon course for the second time after finishing third in 2012.

"I am truly honored to be able to run the Tokyo Marathon again. I regret that I finished in the third place in Tokyo in 2012, but later that year, I turned that defeat into a great victory at the London Olympic Games," said Kiprotich. "This time round, I'm determined to do my best, so that I could turn my bitter memory into a wonderful one."

Organizers are keen for the elite athletes to improve on the Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede, Japanese all-time record of 2:05:18, which he set at the Fukuoka International Marathon in 2009. Endite