Sutume Kebede and Benson Kipruto will defend their titles when they race as part of strong fields at the Tokyo Marathon – a World Athletics Platinum Label road race – on Sunday (2).
Ethiopia’s Kebede, who set a Japanese all-comers’ record of 2:15:55 when winning in Tokyo last year, will be joined by four other women to have dipped under 2:18 in a field that features a total of nine sub-2:20 runners.
One of those is another former Tokyo Marathon winner, with Rosemary Wanjiru returning after her victory in 2023. It was originally annouced that 2022 winner Brigid Kosgei, the former world record-holder, would also be racing, but organisers have since confirmed her withdrawal.
That makes Kebede the fastest in the field, with a PB that places her eighth on the women’s world marathon all-time list. As well as her win in Tokyo last year, the 30-year-old finished second in the Chicago Marathon and she returns to racing for the first time since retaining her title at the Tata Steel Kolkata World 25K in December.
Wanjiru’s PB is the 2:16:14 she ran when finishing runner-up to Kebede in Tokyo last year. That puts her 10th on the world all-time list and on Sunday she will race her first marathon since that second-place finish in Japan’s capital.
Ethiopia’s Tigist Ketema, who ran 2:16:07 on her debut in Dubai just over a year ago, is another leading contender, along with her compatriots Hawi Feysa, who won in Frankfurt in October in 2:17:25, 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase and 2021 London Marathon runner-up Degitu Azimeraw. Japan’s Ai Hosoda and Yuka Ando will join them on the start line.
Kenya’s Kipruto, who also set a Japanese all-comers’ record when winning in Tokyo last year in 2:02:16, will be joined in the men’s race by Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, the world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder who returns to the roads to contest his second marathon after his 2:08:59 debut in Valencia in 2023.
After winning in Tokyo, Kipruto became an Olympic bronze medallist as he ran 2:07:00 to finish third in Paris. Now he will aim to become the first man to win back-to-back Tokyo Marathon titles since Birhanu Legese in 2019 and 2020. Kipruto also won the Boston Marathon in 2021 and the Chicago Marathon in 2022, and was runner-up in Chicago in 2023.
But Legese is also in action in Tokyo, and the 30-year-old has the chance to become the first three-time winner of the elite men’s race. The Ethiopian remains the ninth-fastest marathon runner in history with the PB of 2:02:48 he set in Berlin in 2019.
The field features six sub-2:04 athletes, with Kipruto and Legese joined by Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta, the Olympic fifth-place finisher and Valencia Marathon runner-up who has a best of 2:02:38, plus 2023 Berlin Marathon third-place finisher Tadese Takele, this year’s Xiamen Marathon winner Dawit Wolde and Kenya’s Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich, who was third in Tokyo last year.
The line-up also includes Ethiopia’s world bronze medallist Leul Gebresilase, Uganda’s Stephen Kissa and Japan’s Yohei Ikeda and Akira Akasaki.
Elite fields
Women
Sutume Kebede (ETH) 2:15:55
Tigist Ketema (ETH) 2:16:07
Rosemary Wanjiru (KEN) 2:16:14
Hawi Feysa (ETH) 2:17:25
Degitu Azimeraw (ETH) 2:17:58
Gotytom Gebreslase (ETH) 2:18:11
Winfridah Moraa Moseti (KEN) 2:18:25
Mestawut Fikir (ETH) 2:18:48
Magdalyne Masai (KEN) 2:18:58
Ai Hosoda (JPN) 2:20:31
Desi Jisa Mokonin (BRN) 2:20:47
Yuka Ando (JPN) 2:21:18
Jessica Stenson (AUS) 2:24:01
Zhang Deshun (CHN) 2:24:05
Rie Kawauchi (JPN) 2:25:35
Kaori Morita (JPN) 2:26:31
Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (MGL) 2:26:32
Shiho Kaneshige (JPN) 2:28:51
Men
Benson Kipruto (KEN) 2:02:16
Deresa Geleta (ETH) 2:02:38
Birhanu Legese (ETH) 2:02:48
Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich (KEN) 2:03:13
Tadese Takele (ETH) 2:03:24
Dawit Wolde (ETH) 2:03:48
Leul Gebresilase (ETH) 2:04:02
Stephen Kissa (UGA) 2:04:48
Tsegaye Getachew (ETH) 2:04:49
Amedework Walelegn (ETH) 2:04:50
Titus Kipruto (KEN) 2:04:54
Yohei Ikeda (JPN) 2:05:12
Mulugeta Asefa Uma (ETH) 2:05:33
Ichitaka Yamashita (JPN) 2:05:51
Kenya Sonota (JPN) 2:05:59
Hiroto Inoue (JPN) 2:06:47
He Jie (CHN) 2:06:57
Vincent Raimoi (KEN) 2:07:01
Hendrik Pfeiffer (GER) 2:07:14
Akira Akasaki (JPN) 2:07:32
Suldan Hassan (SWE) 2:07:36
Joshua Cheptegei (UGA) 2:08:59
Geoffrey Toroitich (KEN) debut
AloJapan.com