Based in Japan since 2010, first at Aomori Yamada H.S. and then at the Starts corporate team, Rosemary Wanjiru came to the Tokyo Marathon women’s race ranked #2 in the field after a 2:18:00 debut for 2nd in Berlin last fall. Running a lead quartet with Ethiopians Tsehay Gemechu, Worknesh Edesa and last year’s runner-up Ashete Bekere, Wanjiru was calm and relaxed until the Sumida bridge, where she pushed ahead of the two pacers and dropped them. The Ethiopian trio went with her, but it was quickly down to just Wanjiru and Tsehay, also running only her 2nd marathon after a 2:18:59 debut in Amsterdam last fall.

Wanjiru kept up the pressure, skillfully winding between amateur men on the course to put physical barriers between herself and Tsehay. The ploy worked, and within just a few km she was on her own. From there then gap only grew as the 2:16:02 CR set last year by WR holder Brigid Kosgei came closer. Wanjiru went all-out in the last km even though the CR looked out of reach, and was as stunned as anyone when she crossed the finish line with a world-leading 2:16:28. Tsehay also made it under 2:17 in 2:16:56, and the two women hugged and laughed in amazement after picking themselves up off the pavement.

Ashete was 3rd in 2:19:11, with Worknesh fading to 4th in 2:20:13. Running most of the race in 5th, top Japanese woman Mizuki Matsuda was run down by American Betsy Saina in the last km, Saina taking 5th in a PB 2:21:40 and Matsuda 6th in 2:21:44. Women-only NR holder Mao Ichiyama, admitting she was undertrained after an injury in December, managed only a 2:31:52 for 14th, caught by 44-year hold Australian Lisa Weightman who ran Tokyo only a week after a 2:23:15 PB in Osaka.

The men’s race went out fast just under 2:04 pace, but soon stabilized in the mid-2:04 range. It was mostly a steady whittling down of the massive lead group, even after the pacers stopped at 30 km and the pace slowed into 2:05 territory. In his 3rd marathon, 25-year-old Komazawa University graduate Ichitaka Yamashita surprisingly went to the lead at 30 km, pushing the pace and cutting the leaders down to ten. But another surge from Mohamed Esa and Titus Kipruto after 35 km split that group into two parts, with Ethiopians Mohamed, Deso Gelmisa, Tsegaye Getachew and Deme Tadu Abate, the Kenyan Kipruto, and Canadian NR holder Cam Levins and Japanese trio Yamashita, Suguru Osako and Kenya Sonota drifting behind with Ugandan NR holder Stephen Kissa in tow.

In the last km the front group turned into a three-way sprint battle between Deso, Mohamed and Tsegaye, with Deso having just enough to manage a salute as he crossed the line in 2:05:22 for the win. Mohamed had the same time in 2nd, with Tsegaye 3rd in 2:05:25. Kipruto was just back in a PB of 2:05:32, with Levins outkicking Deme by 2 seconds in a new NR of 2:05:36 for 5th. In his victory interview Deso said, „It means much to me to run here where the great Abebe Bikila once ran. I feel that the people of Tokyo are like family.“

In the chase quartet, Kissa quickly lost touch, ultimately finishing 11th in 2:07:16. Sonota was the first of the remaining Japanese trio to drop, leaving Osako right on Yamashita’s heels at 40 km. But Yamashita took advantage of Osako’s lack of finishing speed to drop an extended push that took him all the way to the finish in 2:05:51, only the third Japanese man ever to break 2:06. Osako struggled to keep it going, and Sonota, an established hard-finisher and another Komazawa grad, ran him down in the last km. With a massive last sprint Sonota just made it under 2:06 too, clocking 2:05:59. Osako was 9th in 2:06:13, looking unhappy with his result but enough to get him into October’s MGC Race Olympic marathon trials.

Behind him, 2:06:47 marathoner Hiroto Inoue came back after getting dropped by Yamashita’s push after 30 km to catch Kissa for 10th in 2:07:09. Altogether 20 men broke 2:10, fewer than expected given the excellent conditions but still something that would have been almost unthinkable a few years ago. The men’s race still achieved its objective of pushing top Japanese men to go to the next level, but a lot of them paid the price for trying to get there.

2023 Tokyo Marathon

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