NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 06 – Olympic champion and world record holder Eliud Kpchoge clinched the Tokyo Marathon title on his debut, winning the race in the Japanese capital in a new course record time of 2hrs, 02mins, 40secs on Sunday morning.
Kipchoge has now won four of the six World Major Marathon races and becomes only the second man after Wilson Kipsang to do so since 2006.
Kipchoge led a Kenyan one-two finish with Amos Kipruto coming home second in 2hrs, 03mins, 13secs as Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola finished third in 2hrs, 04mins, 14secs.
Meanwhile, Brigid Kosgei completed the Kenyan double in Tokyo after winning the women’s race in a time of 2hrs, 16mins, 02secs.
Kipchoge’s performance is the fourth-best ever behind his own world record of 2:01:39 set in Berlin in 2018, while Kosgei’s is a time that only she with her world record of 2:14:04 from Chicago in 2019 and Paula Radcliffe with her 2:15:25 from London in 2003 have ever beaten.
The Marathon Olympic champion led a Kenyan one two with Amos Kipruto, the world championship bronze medalist finished second in a personal best time of 2:03:13 in second, while Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola was third in 2:04:14.
“I am really happy. I am excited to be here in Japan, especially after winning the Olympic Games in Sapporo. I really appreciated the crowd,” Kipchoge said after the race.
Before the race Kipchoge had written ‘ST:RO:NG’ instead of numbers on his finish time prediction card and the 37-year-old felt he had achieved his aim.
“I said I wanted to run strong in Japan and I did, I ran a course record. I am really happy I won another major marathon,” he added.
The Marathon king would have run a faster time had there been no route mishap that forced the elite men’s leading pack to reroute just after the 10km mark.
The race had been fast from the start and the leaders with Kipchoge in control at the front were well under world record pace as they passed 5km in 14:17.
At 10km the clock showed 28:37, with Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata dropped by that point, the 2020 London Marathon winner having struggled to keep in touch from 8km.
The lead group featured Kipchoge, Kipruto and Tola, together with Ethiopia’s world silver medallist Mosinet Geremew and Kenya’s Jonathan Korir.
That five-strong pack remained together through 15km in 43:16, 20km in 57:53 and half way in 1:01:03, with the world record looking less of a target.
Geremew had been right on Kipchoge’s shoulder up to that point but he dropped back slightly at around 23km and one kilometre later the world silver medallist – who sits fourth on the world marathon all-time list with the 2:02:55 he ran in London in 2019 – pulled up and started to walk, with his hands on his head.
When the final pacemaker dropped off at 27km, Kipchoge continued to push ahead and the race was down to three: Kipchoge, Kipruto and Tola, who started to lose touch 2km later. Kipchoge led through 30km in 2:02:09 pace.
Kipchoge and Kipruto were side-by-side through 35km in 1:41:30 and then Kipchoge began to make his move. He was a stride ahead at 36km and that increased to around five seconds over the next kilometre as the athletes made a turn and began running into a headwind.
But he hung on to record the fastest marathon ever run in Japan by over a minute and claim a 33-second victory.
-Kosgei runs third fastest time-
The women’s race record had been held by Lonah Chemtai Salpeter with the 2:17:45 she set on a slightly different course in 2020 and that time always looked under threat. The leaders were on 2:15:44 pace for the first downhill 5km and then passed 10km in 32:14.
By that point, Kosgei was running as part of a larger mixed group along with fellow women’s race leaders Gebreslase and Bekere, plus Kenya’s Angela Tanui and Ethiopia’s Hiwot Gebrekidan.
A chase group featuring Ichiyama and her compatriot Hitomi Niiya, who won the first Tokyo Marathon in 2007, plus Ethiopia’s Helen Bekele and the USA’s 2020 London Marathon runner-up Sara Hall was 30 seconds back.
The same group of five led through 15km in 48:21 and reached half way in 1:08:06. At 25km, passed by the leaders in 1:20:48, chase group athletes Ichiyama and Hall remained on national record pace but those aims began to move out of reach a short while later.
Kosgei was still in control with Gebreslase tracking her, and the pair had broken away by 35km, with 1:53:08 on the clock. Kosgei missed her drink at that point but she didn’t seem to mind as she forged ahead while Gebreslase dropped off the pace. Kosgei had broken away by 37km and went on unchallenged to record another magnificent mark.
Bekere – who ran 2:18:18 when finishing third at last year’s London Marathon – came through to claim the runner’s up spot and improve her PB by 20 seconds while Gebreslase also had the run of her life to match her compatriot’s former PB of 2:18:18, building on her 2:20:09 debut performance in Berlin.
Tanui was fourth in 2:18:42 and Gebrekidan fifth in 2:19:10, while Ichiyama secured sixth in 2:21:02, Niiya seventh in 2:21:17 and Hall eighth in 2:22:56.
-Additional information from World Athletics
