London marathon field could be weakened by no-fly travel chaos • African athletes due to travel to London via Barcelona• Mara Yamauchi faces long journey from TokyoLondon marathon organisers are pulling out all the stops to ensure that the competition's elite runners are able to reach the start line of the race on Sunday. With the continuing travel chaos caused by Iceland's volcanic eruptions, organisers were faced with the nightmare of fielding a severely diminished start list.The men's race was most under threat with the world's biggest names based in Kenya and Ethiopia, but organisers have managed to put alternative travel arrangements in place and chartered a private plane from Nairobi – with a stopover in Djibouti – to land in Barcelona. From there the party of east African runners, which includes last year's champion Sammy Wanjiru, the world champion Abel Kirui and the three-time world half-marathon champion Zersenay Tadese, will travel overland to London should the flight ban still be in operation.The women's race has also been affected with Britain's Mara Yamauchi, last year's impressive runner-up, caught up in the chaos. Yamauchi, who finished sixth at the Olympic Games in 2008, had the foresight to book a flight from her home in Tokyo into Madrid at the weekend, but then faced a two-day journey by road and rail with her coach and husband to reach London. The defending champion, Germany's Irina Mikitenko, will travel by car from her home in central Germany, but Deena Kastor of the US as well as several Japanese runners face an agonising wait to find out whether they will be able to fly into the UK in time.All of the runners involved in extended travel arrangements are likely to encounter increased fatigue in Sunday's race. That could potentially increase Britain's chances in the men's race – an event that has not been won •アフリカの選手が、ロンドン、バルセロナ•マーラヤマウチを経由するため、競争のエリートランナーが日曜日のレースのスタートラインに到達することができるように全力を引いているTokyoLondonマラソンの主催者からの長い旅に直面する
