Skip to main content

Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon Preview and Streaming


Following Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifier half marathon, the weekend's other big half is Sunday's Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon. The Tokyo Marathon Foundation has been trying to get this race off the ground for the last few years, and it is pretty cool. Starting and finishing on the track in the National Stadium built for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and following basically the same course as the one originally planned for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the MGC Race Olympic marathon trials, and last month's Tokyo World Athletics Championships marathon, it's quickly gotten popular as a mass participation race.

But as an elite race it's got a few problems. The uphill finish that was such an important strategic part of the MGC and World Championships marathons means it'll never be as fast as it could be. And its timing in the middle of ekiden season severely limits the number of Japanese athletes and Japan-based Africans who can run it, especially for women as the Princess Ekiden qualifying race for the National Corporate Women's Ekiden is the same day. There's a little bit of a silver lining there, as the National Corporate Federation is looking at finally adding a seeded bracket to the New Year Ekiden specifically to free up top-level people from top-tier teams to run the Tokyo Legacy Half.

But anyway, the fields are what they are, and they're not bad. On the women's side Janet Nyiva and Kaede Kawamura are the only sub-70 women in the race, but they've got some interesting competition from Rebecca Mwangi, debuting off a 31:13 road 10 km this year, Gold Coast Marathon CR breaker Yuki Nakamura, and returning former track star Kaede Hagitani. Ethiopian Meskerem Mamo hasn't raced since 2021 and didn't do anything longer than 5 km even back then, but she's set to debut here too for whatever reason.

Tokyo Olympics 10000 m gold medalist Selemon Barega is the heavy favorite in the men's race, where his main competition is collegiate half marathon record co-holder Richard Etir fresh off Monday's Izumo Ekiden, sub-60 man Benard Langat, and 2:05:43 marathoner Victor Kipchirchir. The currently fastest Japanese man in the field is Kotaro Kondo at 1:01:26, and right behind him Suguru Osako and Yohei Ikeda are running in prep for the Valencia Marathon in December. Hakone Ekiden First Stage CR holder Yamato Yoshii will be running his first half marathon since going to the corporate leagues, and Masato Arao will also be back on the roads after his breakthrough 2:07:42 PB for 6th at the Sydney Marathon in August.

The race will be streamed live starting at 7:45 a.m. local time Sunday, with the wheelchair race starting at 8:00 and the main event at 8:05.

Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Tokyo, 19 Oct. 2025
times listed are athletes' best within last 3 years except where noted

Women
Janet Nyiva (Kenya/Panasonic) - 1:07:37 (Gifu Seiryu Half 2025)
Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:08:58 (Marugame Half 2025)
Madoka Nakano (Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:10:40 (Gold Coast Half 2025)
Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) - 1:10:56 (Osaka Half 2024)
Yuki Nakamura (Panasonic) - 1:12:23 (Porto Half 2024)
Yuna Arai (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1:12:47 (Gifu Seiryu Half 2024)
Natsuki Ogawa (Suzuki) - 1:14:08 (Tokyo Legacy Half 2024)
Rebecca Mwangi (Kenya) - debut - 31:13 (Durban 10k 2025)
Kaede Hagitani (Saku T&F Assoc.) - debut - 31:35.67 (Tokyo 2022)
Meskerem Mamo (Ethiopia) - debut - 14:54 (5km de Lille 2021)

Men
Selemon Barega (Ethiopia) - 57:50 (Valencia Half 2023)
Richard Etir (Kenya/Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 59:30 (Berlin Half 2025)
Benard Langat (Kenya/Honda) - 59:58 (Lisbon Half 2025)
Bedan Karoki (Kenya/Toyota) - 1:00:38 (Tokyo Legacy Half 2024)
Vincent Yegon (Kenya/Honda) - 1:00:39 (RAK Half 2025)
Paul Kuira (Kenya/JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:00:47 (Ageo City Half 2023)
Benard Kimeli (Kenya/Fujitsu) - 1:00:52 (Tokyo Legacy Half 2024)
Andrew Lorot (Kenya/YKK) - 1:01:04 (Tokyo Legacy Half 2024)
Justus Muasya (Kenya/Fujisan GX) - 1:01:18 (Marugame Half 2025)
Kotaro Kondo (SGH) - 1:01:26 (Tokyo Legacy Half 2023)
Suguru Osako (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 1:01:28 (Marugame Half 2025)
Yohei Ikeda (Kao) - 1:01:29 (Osaka Half 2023)
Takayuki Iida (Fujitsu) - 1:01:30 (National Corporate Half 2024)
Masato Arao (ND Software) - 1:02:53 (Ichinoseki Half 2024)
Victor Kipchirchir (Kenya) - 2:05:43 (Barcelona Marathon 2025)
Yamato Yoshii (Toyota) - 27:36.33 (National Championships 10000 m 2025)

© 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Fantastic to see Kaede Hagitani's name in the starting line up. I remember reading an article a while back saying she was returning to athletics but then she never appeared in any races of note that I could find and no updates either on whether she was injured and perhaps decided to retire again. I hope she performs well as I believe she intends to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics in the marathon. Also interested to see how Yuki Nakamura goes in this. She's been relatively quiet this year compared to her great 2024 season.
October 17, 2025 at 7:42 AM
MARTIN BRYAN said…
always fascinating seeing how these elite lineups come together. The Tokyo Legacy course looks brutal with that uphill finish but still such a special event to run through the Olympic route. I’m training for a marathon next year, so I love following these build-up races and seeing how the pros handle the conditions and pacing strategies.
October 25, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...
41 comments
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more