Hendrik Ramaala is the latest world-class athlete to sign up for the London Marathon on April 17, spurning a lucrative offer to run in Boston instead.
The 33-year-old South African lawyer will be in confident mood after claiming his first major marathon success in New York last November.
In London he will face a field headed by Kenya's world record holder Paul Tergat and Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie, arguably the greatest distance runner in history.
The Olympic champion Stefano Baldini of Italy and the Moroccan world champion Jaouad Gharib will also compete along with four of the last five London winners.
Ramaala's addition, along with Japan's Toshinari Suwa, who finished sixth in the Olympics, and the Kenyan pair of Cherono Cheruiyot, winner in Turin, and Martin Lel, the 2003 New York champion, counters the loss of Khalid Khannouchi.
The former world record holder, born in Morocco but now a naturalised American, has withdrawn because of a lack of training.
Even so, the field will be the strongest ever assembled for a marathon outside of the Olympics, containing a record 14 runners who have recorded times under 2hr 9min. These include Ramaala, whose personal best is 2:08:58.
Paula Radcliffe will head the women's field, although the Bedford runner said yesterday that her training in the US had been disrupted by bad weather.
"We have moved from Albuquerque to Flagstaff and then back to Albuquerque," said the world record holder. "I was really looking forward to going to Flagstaff; it is such a beautiful place to train, with great facilities. I really enjoyed my time there last year and was happy to be back on the trails and loops there.
"Unfortunately, though, the south-west of the US has had a lot of rain and snow this winter and the weather has been very unpredictable in Flagstaff."
Radcliffe will miss the World's Best 10km in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday for the first time in five years to concentrate on training. Her next race is expected to be in the World Cross Country Championships in St Etienne next month.
