This was our preview of the 2025 Tokyo Marathon – you can click here for full race report, results and official times from Japan.
The newly-expanded Abbott World Marathon Majors series gets underway on Sunday March 2 with the 2025 Tokyo Marathon.
The first of what is now seven-race schedule thanks to the addition of Sydney, the elite global marathon season starts in style with the 18th running of Tokyo.
We’re going to focus on the 169 elites in this preview as they head a field of 38,000 in the Japanese capital over 26.2 miles from the Tokyo Metropolitan Building to the Tokyo Station.
As you’d expect it’s a flat and fast course and last year saw new men’s and women’s course records through Kenya’s Benson Kipruto (2:02:16) and Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede (2:15:55), who are both back to defend their titles.
Note too that for Japanese runners the race is a direct qualifier for the World Athletics Championships in September, which are also being held in Tokyo.
RELATED: Tokyo Marathon history, course records and how to qualify
Start time and how to watch live
It starts at 09:10 local time on Sunday March 2 which is 1910 Eastern and 1610 Western (both Saturday). In Europe that’s 00:10 in the UK and 01:10 CET.
In Japan the race will be broadcast on Nippon Television but for the rest of the world the official website says that will not be announced until the day itself.
As far as last year was concerned, it was aired in over 160 countries via the lines of Eurosport, Canal+, Flo Sports and ESPN International.
Men’s elite field
Kenya’s Benson Kipruto, who beat the course record and clocked the fastest ever time in Japan when winning in Tokyo last year in 2:02:16, returns to defend his crown.
Since then he’s taken bronze at the Paris Olympics and his consistency is astonishing – he’s not finished off the podium in a marathon in the last four years.
He’s one of six sub-2:04 athletes but it’s arguably one man who doesn’t fit into that bracket who looks the most fascinating contender.
And that’s Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, the two-time Olympic champion and world 5,000m and 10,000m record-holder who swaps track for road to take on only his second marathon.
His debut came in Valencia when he faded in the second half and had to settle for a 2:08:59 time – expect a big improvement on Sunday.
Joining Kipruto in the sub-2:04 club are Ethiopian quartet Birhanu Legese, Deresa Geleta, Tadese Takele and Dawit Wolde plus Kenya’s Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich.
Legese is aiming to make history as the first three-time men’s Tokyo Marathon winner, with the 30-year-old having triumphed here 2019 and 2020.
His PB of 2:02:48 in Berlin in 2019 puts him in the top 10 of all time.
Geleta burst onto the scene in spectacular style last year. He hadn’t gone under 2:05 before 2024 but a 2:03:27 early on booked his Olympics place an he showed it was no fluke with fifth in Paris.
He then rounded it off in style with 2:02:38 when he finished runner up in Valencia.
Wolde somehow manages to combine 1500 metres on the track with road marathons but has to be respected with a PB of 2:03:48.
And that’s topped by Takele who is just 22 but registered 2:03:24 in Berlin in 2023, an all-time world best for an U23 athlete.
And in that same race Ngetich made a brilliant marathon debut when he finished second behind the great Eliud Kipchoge in what is still his best time of 2:03:13.
Others to watch include Ethiopia’s Leul Gebresilase, Uganda’s Stephen Kissa and home hopes Akira Akasaki and Yohei Ikeda.
Women’s elite field
Defending champion Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede is also back and it’s hard to get away from the thought that the women’s race looks a four-way battle.
Kebede’s 2:15:55 12 months ago vaulted her into the all-time top 10 and while she didn’t run at the Olympics, she did ‘chase’ home Ruth Chepng’etich when she set that remarkable new world record of 2:09:56 in Chicago in October.
But she’s up against two Kenyans who both have quicker PBs than her and are also former Tokyo winners.
They are former world record-holder and Olympic silver medallist Brigid Kosgei and Rosemary Wanjiru.
Kosgei took the title here in 2022 and is the fastest in the field with her 2:14:04 from Chicago in 2019 but she hasn’t been on the podium since that win three years ago.
Wanjiru, the 2023 victor, was runner up last year in the country where she studied in and considers her second home.
Ethiopia’s Tigist Ketema could easily get into the mix too. She clocked 2:16:07 in Dubai last year, the fastest ever by a marathon debutant.
And she followed that up with a clear-cut victory in Berlin, again going under 2:17.
Hawi Feysa, who won in Frankfurt in October in 2:17:25, 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase and Japanese duo Ai Hosoda and Yuka Ando are among those looking to shake up the big four.
AloJapan.com