Tokyo, March 2 (IANS) Tadese Takele claimed his first major marathon victory and Sutume Kebede retained her title to complete an Ethiopian double at the Tokyo Marathon, a World Athletics Platinum Label road race, on Sunday.
Takele, who finished third in the Berlin Marathon in 2023, ran a world lead of 2:03:23 to improve his personal best by one second. He won by 28 seconds ahead of his compatriot Deresa Geleta (2:03:51), while Kenya’s Vincent Kipkemoi was third (2:04:00).
Kebede set a Japanese all-comers’ record of 2:15:55 when winning in Tokyo last year and this time she ran a world lead of 2:16:31 to triumph, becoming the first back-to-back winner of the Tokyo Marathon women’s race. The top three all finished in 2:17 or under, Kenya’s Winfridah Moraa Moseti finishing second in a personal best of 2:16:56 and Hawi Feysa taking 25 seconds off her own previous best with 2:17:00 to place third.
The event started in near perfect marathon conditions but turned warmer and sunnier as the morning went on.
Both the men’s and women’s races started at an ambitious pace, with the first 5km of the men’s race covered in 14:25 and the women’s in 15:35.
Kenya’s defending champion Benson Kipruto formed part of the lead men’s group along with athletes including Takele, Geleta and Kipkemoi, while Uganda’s world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder Joshua Cheptegei ran in the second group. “Marathon is the new chapter for me,” Cheptegei had said before the race, as he prepared to contest his second marathon after his 2:08:59 debut in Valencia in 2023.
Tsegaye Getachew dropped off the pace just before 25km and the lead pack started to stretch out after 28km, with Kipruto unable to keep up with the leaders.
Kipkemoi, Geleta and Takele had begun to break away from the lead group by 30km and by 31km the race was down to that trio.
Cheptegei took control of the chase pack for a while but then his compatriot Stephen Kissa moved to the fore and started to string that group out at around the 35km mark. But Kissa couldn’t maintain that pace and as he slowed, Cheptegei took over at the helm of the chase group.
At the front of the race, Takele made what would turn out to be a winning move at around 38km. Pushing the pace, he managed to drop Kipkemoi and Geleta and was never challenged from that point.
“I feel very good,” said Takele, the 2021 world U20 3000m steeplechase silver medallist who was contesting the third marathon of his career after finishing third in Berlin in 2023 and seventh in 2024.
“I had prepared well, but the result was even better than expected. Since I had prepared well, at a certain point I told myself that I must go for the win.”
Kipruto finished seventh in 2:05:46 while Cheptegei was ninth in 2:05:59, a three-minute improvement on his time from Valencia.
In the women’s race, Kebede started out on 2:12 marathon pace thanks to that fast opening 5km.
She was unable to maintain that rhythm but still reached 10km in 31:22 and halfway in 1:06:20 before slowing in the second half.
After reaching the 30km mark in 1:34:44 she remained unchallenged and reached the finish line in 2:16:31 to successfully defend her crown.
Behind her, Moseti was running a much more evenly paced race and she gradually closed on Kebede to finish 25 seconds behind the winner. The Bangsaen21 Half Marathon winner passed 10km in 32:24 and halfway in 1:08:23 – two minutes behind leader Kebede.
Feysa was also part of that group, along with Kenya’s Rosemary Wanjiru and Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase.
Moseti and Feysa ran together during the second half of the race and reached 40km in 2:09:57 before Moseti had the stronger finish to clinch the runner-up spot, four seconds ahead of Feysa.
Further down the field, former world record-holder Paula Radcliffe clocked 2:57:26 in her first competitive marathon in 10 years.
–IANS
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