Spain's Lamdassem to make marathon debut at Lake Biwa | 15.02.2012

The 2010 and 2011 SPAR European Cross Country Championships silver medallist Ayad Lamdassem will make his marathon debut in Japan, at the Lake Biwa marathon on 4 March, the race organisers announced this week.

With his cross country credentials and a personal best over 10,000m on the track of 27 45.58, much is expected from the 30-year-old Spaniard.

Among the other European runners making the long trip to the Far East for the race is Poland's Henryk Szost.

Szost was voted as the European Athletes of the Month for October last year after he ran a personal best of 2:09:39 at the BMW Frankfurt Marathon, the third best European marathon time in 2011.

Also in the race is France's Abdellatif Meftah, who clocked a personal best of 2:09:46 when finishing just behind Szost in Frankfurt. It will be the third marathon of his career from Meftah, who finished fourth at the 2010 SPAR European Cross Country Championships and who has also run under 28 minutes for 10,000m.

All three runners will be looking at going under 2:09 for the classic distance.