Cram: The most open race in years

By Steve Cram BBC Sport

World record-holders Paula Radcliffe and Paul Tergat may not be competing in Sunday's London Marathon - but this is still a race packed with talent and interest.

In the men's field, Sammy Korir would be many people's favourite after his efforts in Berlin and think of him as the favourite.

But this is London and this is a very different race.

Olympic champion Gezahegne Abera might win marathons by small margins, but he wins them - and he will be right there at the end.

Gezahegne Abera produces his best in the big marathons

He has had more success in championship marathons than big-city races because he can run under different conditions and without pacemakers.

But we are not certain what sort of form he is it right now.

Benoit Z, the Belgian-born Frenchman who won in Paris in 2002 and is the European record-holder, might spring a surprise.

He did not run the World Championships because of a row with French selectors, but he is a real talent.

With athletes of proven pedigree up against athletes trying to prove themselves, it makes for a very open race.

In the women's event, the spotlight will be on Gete Wami and Sun Yingjie.

Wami has been out for a while, but should she run well on Sunday, then Paula will be concerned come the Olympics.

As for Yingjie, she has run under 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Sun Yingjie has a more unusual running style than Paula Radcliffe

If she can run 2hrs 18mins in London, then she will be another very serious rival in Athens.

Yingjie has that very unusual running action, where she appears not to move her arms at all.

Everyone develops their own action - Paula has - but you stick with what works for you.

It does look very strange, but she claims it is energy-saving - and if it works, why fix it?

Paula and Liz Yelling already have the Olympic qualifying time, but there are others hunting selection, including Jon Brown.

Jon is upset that he is not being paid appearance money for the race and in protest, he says he will run the slowest time possible to achieve Olympic qualification.

Brown running under protest

Protest or not, I think that Jon would have been looking to do that anyway, but I hope his motivation is getting to Athens and not making a point to the race organisers.

Jon is obviously feeling aggrieved, but he has to focus on running a sensible race because everybody wants to see him doing well in Athens.