In the absence of last year's winner and London Olympian Ram Singh Yadav, the men's field in the 10th Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon tomorrow will give steeplechase champion Elam Singh, the frontrunner, to finish on top.

Ram Singh was among 13 London Olympians who were felicitated at the Army Day function on January 15 in Delhi and this affected his training programme and forced him to skip the meet.

The absence of 32-year-old Varanasi-born Yadav -- who was overall 12th in the race in 2012 and qualified for the London Games -- his army mate Elam Singh will be the favourite among the hosts male runners.

Elam was second among Indians behind Yadav, just missing the 'B' standard cut-off for the London Games and was 15th overall in the race won by Laban Moiben of Kenya in 2:10:48.

"I will try to clock my personal best. Last year the experienced Ram Singh set the pace. Whether I will be the best among Indians depends on the competition," said Elam yesterday.

Karan Singh, fifth among Indians last year, national no. 1 ranked Bining Lyngkhai, a former winner among the home country runners, Sanaton Singh and Arvind Yadav -- winner of the Allahabad Marathon in 2012, are the other strong Indian contenders from the armed forces.

Karan, bronze medallist at the Allahabad Marathon last year clocking 2:24:00, is taking part in the Mumbai event for the first time.

According to Elite Indian athletes' co-ordinator, Sunita Godhra, 50 men and 24 women are in the fray for full and half marathons.

Armyman B C Tilak, winner of the 2011 half marathon (21km), is for the first time competing in the full marathon this year.

The half marathon field will see the return of defending champion Soji Mathew who is expected to face stiff competition from the likes of M D Yunus, V L Dangi, Kheta Ram, Man Singh, Budha Ram and Laxman Singh.

All of them are seasoned 10km runners with personal best of 30 minutes and below and have also run the half marathon.

Leading the women's field is Monika Athare, who had finished 13th in the 11th Asian Cross Country event (8km) in China.

Monika said she is looking forward to give her best shot this year at the Mumbai Marathon.

"This is my first year in the Mumbai Marathon and I'm very excited to be running alongside leading athletes Lalita Babar, Sudha Singh and Kavita Raut. I'm sure it will be a learning experience as I think the Mumbai Marathon is a big platform for me to put my best foot forward.

"Kavita is expected to reach tonight after attending an event in Aurangabad," Sunita told PTI at the post lunch event for the athletes today.

The notable names among the full marathon for women are defending champion Lalita Babar, last year's runner-up Kiran Tiwari, Shastri Devi, Bhagwati, Anisa Devi and M Sudha.

The Indians have an extra incentive of Rs 1 lakh for creating a new course record. The men's and women's full marathon winners stand to gain Rs 4.5 lakh each, while the men's and women's half marathon winners will win approximately Rs. 1 lakh each.

In addition a bonus of Rs 1 lakh is on offer for breaking the marathon course records.