Eliud Kipchoge (© Getty Images)
World record-holders Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei are to make their Tokyo Marathon debuts when the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label road race returns on 6 March.
Kipchoge and Kosgei claimed respective gold and silver medals at the Olympics in Tokyo last year and now they return to Japan to form part of strong fields including eight men with PBs under 2:05 and seven women to have gone sub-2:21.
Among them are Ethiopia’s two-time defending Tokyo Marathon champion Birhanu Legese and his compatriot Mosinet Geremew, the world silver medallist. They sit third and fourth on a world marathon all-time list headed by Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 world record with their respective PBs of 2:02:48 and 2:02:55 set in 2019.
Kenya’s world bronze medallist Amos Kipruto is also in action, along with Ethiopia’s Olympic and world medallist Tamirat Tola and their fellow sub-2:05 runners Jonathan Korir of Kenya, Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata and Japanese record-holder Kengo Suzuki, who ran 2:04:56 to win the Lake Biwa Marathon last year.
“I would like to thank the organisers of the Tokyo Marathon to make it possible for me and my colleague athletes to race in Tokyo,” said Kipchoge.
“My focus has been on Tokyo from the beginning of my training cycle, and I can say I am ready to race there. I am very excited to run in a country where running is a crucial part of the sport culture and am looking forward to experiencing the Japanese excitement for running the marathon in particular.”
Kosgei set her world record of 2:14:04 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon and since then she has won the 2020 London Marathon. In Tokyo she will face her fellow Kenyan Angela Tanui, who won last year’s Amsterdam Marathon in 2:17:57, a time that places her 10th on the world all-time list.
Ethiopia’s Ashete Bekere has also dipped under 2:19 with her PB of 2:18:18 clocked when finishing third at last year’s London Marathon, while her compatriots Hiwot Gebrekidan and Gotytom Gebreslase – the 2021 Berlin Marathon runner-up and winner – have respective bests of 2:19:35 and 2:20:09.
USA’s Sara Hall, who ran 2:20:32 in 2020 and was second at that year’s London Marathon, is back in action after her 1:07:15 US half marathon record in Houston in January. The 2019 runner-up in Tokyo, Ethiopia’s Helen Bekele, also returns, as does Japan’s Mao Ichiyama, who clocked 2:20:29 in Nagoya in 2020, and Hitomi Niiya, who won the first Tokyo Marathon in 2007.
