Victors use different styles in Tokyo Marathon
Wanjiru wins women's division after breaking away in final kilometers, Gelmisa surges to men's title in last straightaway
Rosemary Wanjiru of Kenya and Deso Gelmisa of Ethiopia employed dramatically different tactics in winning the women’s and men’s divisions of the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday morning.
Whereas Wanjiru began to pull away from her closest competitor with six kilometers left in the women’s race while on her way to the seventh fastest time in history, Gelmisa spurted ahead of countryman Mohamed Esa with about 60 meters left in a men’s contest in which six runners had been battling for the lead with just over two kilometers to go.
“She said Japan is her home and she is very, very happy,” FloTrack commentator Brett Larner said while translating what an emotional and tearful Wanjiru said in Japanese during a post-race interview on the awards stand.
He added that she said, “I can’t believe it, that was my absolute best. Honestly, I can’t believe it.”
The 28-year-old Wanjiru moved to Japan when she was a teenager and has been a member of a Japanese corporate team since 2014. She had run the second-fastest debut marathon by a woman last September when she clocked 2 hours and 18 minutes to finish second in the Berlin Marathon. But she crushed that time on Sunday when she ran 2:16:28 to move to sixth on all-time world performer list.
Teshay Gemechu of Ethiopia, who had also run an extremely fast time – 2:18:59 – in her marathon debut last year, finished second in 2:16:56 to move to eighth on the all-time world list, with countrywoman Ashete Bekere third in 2:19:11.
Wanjiru had finished fourth in the women’s 10,000 meters in the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. But she began to focus on longer distance races after that as she placed 10th in the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland in 2020. In her first marathon in Berlin last year Wanjiru finished second to Ethiopian Tigist Assefa, who ran a stunning 2:15:37 in only the second race of her life over the 26-mile 385-yard (approximately 42.2 kilometers) distance.
Three pace setters led a group of Wanjiru, Gemechu, Bekere, and third Ethiopian Worknesh Edesa through the first 10 kilometers in 32:34. Two pace setters and that same quartet then came through 20 kilometers in 1:04:42 after running the previous 10 kilometers in 32:08.
With the pace setters no longer with the lead group, Wanjiru came through 30 kilometers in 1:37:25, a second ahead of Gemechu, Bekere, and Edesa. The final winning time was projected to be 2:17:01 based on Wanjiru’s split for 30 kilometers, but she began to pick up the pace after that.
Edesa dropped back of the leaders shortly thereafter and it wasn’t long before Bekere could no longer handle the pace Wanjiru was dictating.
Gemechu was still a second behind Wanjiru when the Kenyan passed through 35 kilometers in 1:53:11 after running the previous 5,000 meters in 15:46. But Gemechu began to fall back two minutes later and Wanjiru had a 19-second lead when she came through 40 kilometers in 2:09:14 after running the previous 10 kilometers in 31:49, the fastest 10K segment of the race.
She was on pace to run 2:16:19 at that point and Larner wondered out loud if Wanjiru might be able to break the course record of 2:16:02 set by world-record-holder Brigid Kosgei of Kenya last year.
Although Wanjiru’s pace slowed slightly over the final two kilometers of the race, she was jubilant and looked remarkably fresh as she came down the final straightaway, pumping her right fist at one point before blowing kisses to the crowd and then falling to her knees and kissing the ground after crossing the finish line.
Gemechu looked thoroughly spent after finishing, but that was understandable as she had just run the ninth-fastest women’s time in history.
Behind Bekele in third, Edesa placed fourth in 2:20:13, with Betsy Saina of the U.S. fifth in a personal best of 2:21:40 and Muzuki Matsuda of Japan sixth in 2:21:44.
Saina, a Kenyan native who made up more than two minutes on Edesa over the last seven kilometers of the race, was competing in her first marathon for the U.S. after gaining her citizenship in 2021. Her time moved her to eighth on the all-time U.S. performer list.
However, Wanjiru took center stage after winning the first World Marathon Major women’s race of the year in a country whose culture reveres its elite marathoners.
“Maybe next time, she’ll go for the world record,” Larner said while translating more of Wanjiru’s comments made in Japanese. “And thank you again for cheering for me. Thank you everyone.”
The winning time in the men’s race paled in comparison to the women’s on a statistical level, as 111 runners – including Gelmisa – have run faster than his 2:05:22 clocking. But the 25-year-old Ethiopian was ecstatic about winning his first World Marathon Major men’s title in the city where Ethiopian legend Abebe Bikila had become the first man in history to win consecutive Olympic titles in the marathon in the Games of 1964.
“He’s really happy to be able to run in Tokyo,” Larner said after comments made by Gelmisa had been translated from his native language to Japanese. “It’s especially meaningful for him because he knows the great Abebe Bikila ran before in Tokyo.”
In contrast to the women’s race, the men’s contest featured large lead packs for much of the contest.
A trio of pace setters was followed by a group of 34 runners when they came through 10 kilometers in 29:21.
There were 30 runners close to the pace setters when they came through 20 kilometers in 58:54, but that group had been reduced to 15 when the pacesetters passed the 30-kilometer mark in 1:28:39. Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia, winner of the 2021 London Marathon and the fastest entrant in the field with a best 0f 2:03:36, was one of the runners who had fallen back during the previous five kilometers.
After the three pace setters dropped out of the race shortly after 30 kilometers, Esa led a group of 10 runners through 35 kilometers 1:43:47.
Ichitaka Yamashita of Japan was in the lead a little after 37 kilometers, but Kenyan Titus Kipruto took over not long after that and the lead pack was down to a half-dozen runners within the next minute.
The group was comprised of Kipruto, the Ethiopian quartet of Gelmisa, Esa, Tesgaye Getachew, and Deme Abate, and Canadian Cam Levins, the fourth-place finisher in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, last year.
Levins led the group through 40 kilometers in 1:58:54, but Gelmisa began to pick up the pace after that. He did not blow open the race with his tactics, but he was able to control the race from the front.
At the 2:04 mark, the lead group was down to Gelmisa, Esa, Getachew, and Kipruto. And the three Ethiopians were battling for the victory a minute later when they turned on to the final straightaway.
Gelmisa and Esa broke away from Getachew at that point and Gelmisa spurted ahead of Esa perhaps 10 seconds later and then held him off during the final 60 meters of the race by drifting to his right and making it particularly difficult for Esa to go around him.
Esa was credited with the same 2:05:22 time as Gelmisa, with Getachew finishing third in 2:05:25.
Kipruto was fourth in 2:05:32, followed by Levins in a North American record of 2:05:36, and Abate in a personal best of 2:05:38. Yamashita and countryman Kenya Sonota became the third and fourth Japanese runners in history to break 2:06 when they finished seventh and eighth in 2:05:51 and 2:05:59, respectively.
Levins’ time crushed his previous national record of 2:07:09 that he ran in the World Championships and it trimmed two seconds off the previous North American record of 2:05:38 that was considered a world best when Khalid Khannouchi of the U.S. ran it in winning the London Marathon in 2002.
“He said it was a really, really tough race at the end,” Larner said while translating Gelmisa’s comments. “He felt really good after 35 kilometers. The wind was a bit of a issue there in the end, but he’s really, really happy to win his first time in Tokyo.”
The Tokyo Marathon was the first of six World Marathon Majors scheduled for this year.
The others will be held in Boston on April 17, in London on April 23, in Berlin on Sept. 24, in Chicago on Oct. 8, and in New York City on Nov. 5.