TOKYO — Deso Gelmisa led an Ethiopian clean sweep of the podium at the Tokyo Marathon, with Kenya’s Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women´s race.
In a tight finish, the 25-year-old Gelmisa finished in 2:05:22 to win his first World Marathon Major by one second ahead of compatriot Mohamed Esa. Tsegaya Getachew finished third, two seconds further back.
Canadian Cam Levins led a group of five runners at the 39-kilometre (24-mile) mark, but Gelmisa sprinted away with 400 meters remaining to claim victory.
Levins finished fifth at 2:05:36 to eclipse the long-standing North American record of 2:05:38 at the flat Tokyo course.
There was no close finish to the women’s race as Wanjiru crossed the line 28 seconds ahead of Ethiopia’s Tsehay Gemechu for her first major win.
Ashete Bekeri, last year’s runners-up finished third, 2:43 behind Wanjiru, AP reported.
Swiss pair Marcel Hug and Manuela Schar won the wheelchair titles and set new course records.
Defending champion Hug won in 1:20:57, nearly four minutes faster than his time last year.
Schar won the women’s race in 1:36:43.
Paris Olympics hopeful Ichitaka Yamashita was the first Japanese runner home, finishing seventh in a personal-best 2:05:51, while sixth-place Tokyo Olympic finisher Suguru Osako was ninth in 2:06:13.
Yamashita moved to the fore as part of a 12-man lead group around the 35-kilometer mark. A group of six started breaking away by the last turnaround point at around 37 km before Gelmisa, Esa, Getachew and the eventual fourth-place finisher, Kenya’s Titus Kipruto, began surging for home.
The Ethiopian trio went up another gear as they ran a three-man sprint toward the ribbon in front of Tokyo Station, with last year’s Paris Marathon winner Gelmisa finishing strongest.
Japan-based Wanjiru was head and shoulders above the rest of the women’s field, winning by 28 seconds from Ethiopia’s Tsehay Gemechu, who also became just the eighth woman to run a marathon under 2:17.
Last year’s runner-up, Ethiopia’s Ashete Bekere, was third in 2:19:11, while Mizuki Matsuda was the first Japanese woman across the line, finishing sixth in 2:21:44.
The 28-year-old Wanjiru was contesting just her second marathon after sensationally debuting with a runner-up performance in Berlin last year.
She was running solo by the 39-km mark in central Tokyo before adding further distance between herself and the chasing pack.
The Tokyo Marathon restored its full capacity by featuring 38,000 runners, having previously limited the number of entrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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