History Comes Calling – Kipsang and Chepchirchir Run Japanese Soil Records at Tokyo Marathon – by Brett Larner – Japan Running News

The Tokyo Marathon's investment in a new course and top-class field to match paid off with what might have been the greatest race in Japanese marathoning history as Kenyans Wilson Kipsang and Sarah Chepchirchir delivered the fastest men's and women's marathons ever run on Japanese soil.  

Young Japanese runners rose to the challenge in both races, with Hiroto Inoue (Team MHPS) and Ayaka Fujimoto (Team Kyocera) making huge breakthroughs to take top Japanese honors.

Conditions were cool enough that the race went out hot, the men's front group going through the first km around 2:46 and splitting 14:14 on the downhill first 5 km, 2:00:07 pace, but it wasn't just them.  A small chase group including debuting Japanese men Yuta Shitara (Team Honda) and Takashi Ichida (Team Asahi Kasei), and second-time marathoner Hiroto Inoue (Team MHPS) was close behind on WR pace with the main Japanese pack under NR pace, everyone keying into the vibe of the day and letting it flow.

By 10 km things settled down, Kipsang staying at the helm behind the pacers, flanked by Tokyo event record holder Dickson Chumba (Kenya), the up-and-coming Evans Chebet (Kenya), relative unknowns Gideon Kipketer (Kenya) and Solomon Deksisa (Ethiopia) and others, holding steady on world record pace through the hilly new middle section of the course until 25 km.  Behind him, Shitara threw off the other Japanese men and tried to close on the lead group, running 10 seconds faster than them between 10 and 15 km but unable to get there before the hills began.

The last of the hills, the return trip over Kuramae Bridge, had the expected impact on the lead pack, shaking it down to just Kipsang, Chumba and Deksisa, and when 30 km came the projected finish had slipped to 2:03:00.  Kipsang and Chumba worked together to try to keep it together, but by the final turnaround point just past 35 km Kipsang was all alone and the record was out of reach.  Bearing down after 40 km he rounded the final corner right on the edge of 2:04, kicking in to deliver the first 2:03 ever run on Japanese soil in 2:03:58.  In one bound he took Tokyo and the Japanese all-comers record, from 2:05 to the 2:03 level, putting it among the very top in the sport.  And he wasn't the only one.

Kipketer came back late to haul up to 2nd in a PB of 2:05:51, previous CR holder Chumba 3rd in 2:06:25.  Another 2:06.  A 2:07, then a 2:08.  And an aggressive battle over the last three 3 km as Yohanes Ghebregergish (Eritrea) and Inoue retook a fading Shitara.  Ghebregergish took 7th in 2:08:14, then Inoue in a more than 4 1/2 minute PB of 2:08:22 for 8th.  Three more Japanese men, all graduates of Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Toyo University, came through under 2:10, all for the first time, New York 4th placer Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Team Konica Minolta) 10th in a 2:09:12 PB, Shitara becoming the tenth Japanese man to debut sub-2:10 with a 2:09:27 for 11th, and 30 km collegiate national record holder Yuma Hattori (Team Toyota) running a 2 minute PB 2:09:46 for 13th.  But again they weren't the only ones.

The women's race in Tokyo has always felt like an afterthought to Tokyo's legacy as an elite men's race.  

This year the television coverage of the women's race was a big step up even if the field was still small and missing elite domestic women.  Deep in the middle of a massive pack of high-level amateur men and pacers, 2016 Lisbon Marathon winner Chepchirchir was in control the entire way, never relenting her position ahead of the Ethiopian quartet of Amane Beriso, Amane Gobena, Birhane Dibaba and Marta Lema and of debuting compatriot Betsy Saina.  Like the men's race they were out fast, on 2:20:31 pace at 5 km and staying under Mizuki Noguchi's 2:21:18 Japanese all-comers record pace all the way to 30 km.

There Chepchirchir said goodbye, dropping a 15:46 split from 30 to 35 km that took her projected finish down to the edge of sub-2:20 and sailing on uninterrupted to win in a new all-comers record of 2:19:47, a new PB by 5 minutes.  Like Kipsang, she skipped right over the 2:20 range to put Tokyo among the world's fastest courses.  Runner-up Dibaba ran a 1-minute PB to break the old course record for 2nd in 2:21:19, last year's runner-up Gobena taking 3rd in 2:23:09.  

The biggest surprise of the day came in 4th, as unknown Ayaka Fujimoto (Team Kyocera), coached by half marathon men's national record holder Atsushi Sato, ran a more than 20 minute PB of 2:27:08.  Running with three Japanese male pacers, American Sara Hall also delivered a PB, going under 2:30 for the first time in 2:28:26 for 6th.

11th Tokyo Marathon
Tokyo, 2/26/17

Men
1. Wilson Kipsang (Kenya) – 2:03:58 – ACR
2. Gideon Kipketer (Kenya) – 2:05:51 – PB
3. Dickson Chumba (Kenya) – 2:06:25
4. Evans Chebet (Kenya) – 2:06:42
5. Alfers Lagat (Kenya) – 2:07:39
6. Bernard Kipyego (Kenya) – 2:08:10
7. Yohanes Ghebregergish (Eritrea) – 2:08:14 – PB
8. Hiroto Inoue (Japan/MHPS) – 2:08:22 – PB
9. Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia) – 2:08:45
10. Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Japan/Konica Minolta) – 2:09:12 – PB
11. Yuta Shitara (Japan/Honda) – 2:09:27 – debut
12. Solomon Deksisa (Ethiopia) – 2:09:31
13. Yuma Hattori (Japan/Toyota) – 2:09:46 – PB
14. Masato Imai (Japan/Toyota Kyushu) – 2:11:02
15. Takuya Noguchi (Japan/Konica Minolta) – 2:11:04 – PB
16. Yuki Takamiya (Japan/Yakult) – 2:11:05
17. Geoffrey Ronoh (Kenya) – 2:11:20
18. Yuki Nakamura (Japan/Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) – 2:12:58 – debut
19. Akihiko Tsumurai (Japan/Mazda) – 2:13:27 – debut
20. Ryo Hashimoto (Japan/GMO) – 2:13:29
21. Naoki Okamoto (Japan/Chugoku Denryoku) – 2:13:33
22. Koji Gokaya (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) – 2:113:52
23. Marius Kipserem (Kenya) – 2:13:53
24. Tatsunori Hamasaki (Japan/Komori Corp.) – 2:13:57
25. Andrew Bumbalough (U.S.A.) – 2:13:58 – debut

Women
1. Sarah Chepchirchir (Kenya) – 2:19:47 – ACR, PB
2. Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia) – 2:21:19 – PB
3. Amane Gobena (Ethiopia) – 2:23:09
4. Ayaka Fujimoto (Japan) – 2:27:08 – PB
5. Marta Lema (Ethiopia) – 2:27:37
6. Sara Hall (U.S.A.) – 2:28:26 – PB
7. Madoka Nakano (Japan/Noritz) – 2:33:00 – PB
8. Kotomi Takayama (Japan/Sysmex) – 2:34:44 – debut
9. Hiroko Yoshitomi (Japan/Memolead) – 2:35:11

© 2017 Brett Larner
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by Brett Larner – Japan Running News