And the prospect of Paula Radcliffe also tackling 26.2 miles for the first time has attracted at least as much interest as the signing of the Ethiopian great.

But both runners will have their work cut out to get their marathon careers off to a winning start.

Radcliffe must take on defending champion Derartu Tulu, former winner Joyce Chepchumba and world marathon championship bronze medallist Svetlana Zakharova.

And in the men's race, it is not just the new distance that Gebrselassie must come to terms with.

World record-holder Khalid Khannouchi, defending champion Abdelkader El Mouaziz and world half-marathon record-holder Paul Tergat also bar his route to glory.

War chest

Race director David Bedford is the man who has assembled Sunday's star-studded line-up.

He says that signing so many big names would have been almost impossible in the days when he had to track down each athlete to obscure training camps scattered across the globe.

"It's actually become easier to put these sort of fields together since the advent of the agent," he said.

"At one time, about 10 years ago, putting the elite field together was the only thing I did.

"Now it takes less time when you know the agents, you know the contracts and you have a very strong budget."

The size of that budget is, of course, the key.

Bedford's war chest bulges to the tune of US$2.2m (�1.54m) annually.