by Brett Larner video by naoki620 On a cold and moderately windy day, pre-race favorite Dennis Kipruto Kimetto (Kenya) lived up to expectations to bring the Tokyo Marathon into the World Marathon Majors with a 2:06:50 course record, holding off defending champion Michael Kipkorir Kipyego (Kenya) over the final kilometers after taking the lead at 34 km. The group of pacers taking the lead men through 30 km were far off the target splits of 14:50-55 per 5 km, never breaking 15:00 and immediately eliminating 2:05 from possibility. At 30 km James Kwambai (Kenya) took over, initiating a surge that turned into a 5 km split of 14:20 once Kimetto went to work at 34 km. Kipyego came close to catching up back up in the final 5 km but could not manage to close the final 3 seconds before losing ground in the final kilometer. 2009 Tokyo runner-up Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), who ran a 2:08:38 PB in Tokyo last year, was the only Japanese man to go with Kwambai's push, movi...
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