The Tokyo Marathon elite field has been published. As typical with Marathon Majors (Boston, NY, London, Chicago, Berlin, Sydney) they are world-class.
The men’s list features 29 athletes who have run under 2:08:00. There are many more sub-2:10:00.
According to Japan Running News, Benson Kipruto and third-place finisher Vincent Ngetich, 2:02:38 man Derese Geleta, Joshua Cheptegei taking another stab at the distance. Another eight at the 2:03-2:04 level. Meanwhile, 2:05-class Japanese men Yohei Ikeda, Ichitaka Yamashita, Kenya Sonota and Paris Olympics sixth-place runner Akira Akasaki will be gunning for the 2:04:56 NR, and there are interesting debuts from 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech and Hakone Ekiden star Aoi Ota from 2024-2025 champ Aoyama Gakuin University.
On the women’s side, there are the last three winners, Sutume Asefa Kebede, Rosemary Wanjiru and Brigid Kosgei, 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase, last year’s Dubai winner Tigist Ketema and another 6 women in the 2:17-2:19 range. Top Japanese draw Ai Hosoda hopes to get into the sub-2:20 club after a 2:20:31 PB in Berlin last fall.
The fields
Men sub-2:08:00
Benson Kipruto (Kenya) – 2:02:16 (1st, Tokyo 2024)
Derese Geleta (Ethiopia) – 2:02:38 (2nd, Valencia 2024)
Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich (Kenya) – 2:03:13 (2nd, Berlin 2023)
Tadese Takele (Ethiopia) – 2:03:24 (3rd, Berlin 2023)
Dawit Wolde (Ethiopia) – 2:03:48 (3rd, Valencia 2023)
Birhanu Legese (Ethiopia) – 2:04:44 (3rd, Amsterdam 2023)
Stephen Kissa (Uganda) – 2:04:48 (2nd, Hamburg 2022)
Tsegaye Getachew (Ethiopia) – 2:04:49 (1st, Amsterdam 2022)
Amedework Walelegn (Ethiopia) – 2:04:50 (2nd, Rotterdam 2024)
Titus Kipruto (Kenya) – 2:04:54 (2nd, Amsterdam 2022)
Leul Gebresilase (Ethiopia) – 2:04:56 (2nd, Rotterdam 2022)
Yohei Ikeda (Japan) – 2:05:12 (6th, Berlin 2024)
Mulugeta Asefa Uma (Ethiopia) – 2:05:33 (1st, Paris 2024)
Ichitaka Yamashita (Japan) – 2:05:51 (7th, Tokyo 2023)
Kenya Sonota (Japan) – 2:05:59 (8th, Tokyo 2023)
Suguru Osako (Japan) – 2:06:13 (9th, Tokyo 2023)
Jie He (China) – 2:06:57 (4th, Wuxi 2024)
Vincent Kibor Raimoi (Kenya) – 2:07:01 (2nd, Fukuoka Int’l 2022)
Hiroto Inoue (Japan) – 2:07:09 (10th, Tokyo 2023)
Shaohui Yang (China) – 2:07:09 (2nd, Fukuoka Int’l 2023)
Hendrik Pfeiffer (Germany) – 2:07:14 (3rd, Houston 2024)
Koki Yoshioka (Japan) – 2:07:28 (11th, Osaka 2023)
Gaku Hoshi (Japan) – 2:07:31 (1st, Osaka 2022)
Akira Akasaki (Japan) – 2:07:32 (6th, Paris Olympics 2024)
Shin Kimura (Japan) – 2:07:34 (14th, Tokyo 2024)
Suldan Hassan (Sweden) – 2:07:36 (9th, Sevilla 2024)
Tsubasa Ichiyama (Japan) – 2:07:44 (3rd, Beppu-Oita 2023)
Tatsuya Maruyama (Japan) – 2:07:50 (8th, Berlin 2022)
Yuhei Urano (Japan) – 2:07:52 (3rd, Osaka 2022)
Women sub-2:25:00
Sutume Asefa Kebede (Ethiopia) – 2:15:55 (1st, Tokyo 2024)
Brigid Kosgei (Kenya) – 2:16:02 (1st, Tokyo 2022)
Tigist Ketema (Ethiopia) – 2:16:07 (1st, Dubai 2024)
Rosemary Wanjiru (Kenya) – 2:16:14 (2nd, Tokyo 2024)
Hawi Feysa (Ethiopia) – 2:17:25 (1st, Frankfurt 2024)
Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) – 2:18:11 (1st, Oregon Worlds 2022)
Winfridaw Moraa Moseti (Kenya) – 2:18:25 (2nd, Hamburg 2024)
Mestawut Fikir (Ethiopia) – 2:18:48 (2nd, Berlin 2024)
Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) – 2:18:55 (3rd, Berlin 2018)
Magdalyne Masai (Kenya) – 2:18:58 (2nd, Frankfurt 2024)
Degitu Azimeraw (Ethiopia) – 2:19:52 (1st, Barcelona 2024)
Ai Hosoda (Japan) – 2:20:31 (5th, Berlin 2024)
Desi Jisa Mokonin (Bahrain) – 2:20:47 (2nd, Doha 2023)
Yuka Ando (Japan/Shimamura) – 2:21:18 (1st, Nagoya 2024)
Jessica Stenson (Australia) – 2:24:01 (4th, Daegu 2024)
Deshun Zhang (China) – 2:24:05 (4th, Nagoya 2023)
