Favourite withdraws from Lake Biwa Marathon

Nakamura suffered mild pain in his left foot and, combined with not meeting his training goals last month, decided to take time off before resuming light jogging.

Nakamura said: “Lake Biwa was going to be my first marathon in a long time so I’d been looking forward to it. The pain has already faded, and doesn’t look like it will get in the way of training, but we decided not to risk more serious injury and to withdraw in favour of being ready for the Tokyo Olympics… My first priority is to show up at the Tokyo Olympics ready to race.”