Kenya's world record holders Eliud Kipchoge and Brigitte Kosgei will face a tough test when the 2022 calendar of the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label road race begins with the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday (6).
Kipchoge is one of seven sub-2:05 men, while the same number of athletes have PBs under 2:21 in the women's field, and they will all be looking for a strong start to their racing year in the capital of Japan .
The pandemic prevented the race from taking place in 2021, but both Kipchoge and Kosgei competed over 26.2 miles in Tokyo last year, claiming gold and silver medals respectively at the Olympic Games in August. They are now preparing to make their Tokyo Marathon debut, but things will not go their way.
Kipchoge has won 13 of the 15 marathon races he has contested so far and two of them came in 2021. The first was a victory at Enskide, where he ran 2:04:30, and the next was the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he retained one. He won the title for the first time five years ago in Rio.
It will be the 37-year-old's third run in Japan – his first race at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, where he claimed 5000m silver – as he works towards his objective of winning each of the four Abbott World Marathon Majors. does. He has already won London four times, Berlin three times and Chicago once, excluding Tokyo, Boston and New York City.
"It will be different (for the Olympic Games) because it will be cold, but it hasn't changed my training," Kipchoge, who set his world record of 2:01:39 in Berlin in 2018, told his NN running team . "I'm preparing like I am for any other race, and I feel like I'm on the right track."
However, he is not unbeatable, and among those denying Kipchoge another victory would be Shura Kitata of Ethiopia, who won the 2020 London Marathon when Kipchoge was eighth. There are also world silver medalists Mosinet Geremeu, who is fourth on the all-time list of world marathoners in London in 2019 with 2:02:55, and Amos Kipruto of Kenya, who won world bronze in 2019 and finished with a best of 2. . From :03:30 2020.
The challenge does not end here. Also in the sub-2:05 club are Olympic and world medalist Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, who claimed 10,000m bronze in Rio in 2016 and marathon silver in London in 2017, as well as Jonathan Korir of Kenya and Japanese record holder. Kengo Suzuki, who ran 2 races. :04:56 For winning the Lake Biwa Marathon last year.
He'll also have to fend off some strong opposition if Kosgei is to claim his fifth major marathon victory. The 28-year-old set her own world record of 2:14:04 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon and won the London Marathon for the second time the following year, but was clinched by the title at the Tokyo Olympics. compatriot Perez Jepchirchir and she finished fourth two months later in London.
Her biggest challenge this time in Tokyo could come from fellow Kenyan Angela Tanui, who won last year's Amsterdam Marathon in 2:17:57, a time that puts her 10th on the world's all-time list, or Gottom Gebreslej of Ethiopia, who won the Berlin Marathon last year on her debut at the distance. Since 2:20:09 to win in Berlin, Gebreslez has improved to a best 1:05:36 in her half marathon in Bahrain and the 27-year-old is looking to make another statement in Tokyo.
Hiwot Gebrekidan was second behind her compatriot in Berlin last year and has a PB of 2:19:35, while her fellow Ethiopian Ashte Bekere has a sub-2:19, registering 2:18:18 to her credit. when he finished third. Last year's London Marathon.
They will be joined at the start line by Japan's Mao Ichiyama, who clocked a 2:20:29 time in Nagoya in 2020, and Hitomi Niya, who won the first Tokyo Marathon in 2007.
USA's 2020 London Marathon runner-up Sarah Hall is looking to build on her PB of 2:20:32 in Arizona the same year, following her 1:07:15 US Half Marathon record in Houston in January, while Ethiopia's Helen Bekele at 2019 Tokyo Will be struggling to get a better place than her second-place finish in the marathon.
Coverage of the event is set to be shown in 160 countries and territories, while fans can also follow the action on the live leaderboards. The Elite Marathon will begin at 09:10 local time on Sunday.