Kawauchi Joins Elite Club of 11+ Sub-2:10 Marathoners

by Brett Larner

With his 2:09:54 at Sunday's Ehime Marathon Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) became the fifteenth runner in history to run sub-2:10 eleven times or more in his career. The achievement puts him in distinguished company, including two marathon world record setters, seven Olympic marathon medalists, seven World Championships marathon medalists, three World Marathon Majors champions and eight winners of the six races now making up the World Marathon Majors.

Kawauchi is one of only three non-African athletes to make the list, one of four on the list without either an Olympic or World Championships medal or a win at one of the Big Six, one of four to have not broken 2:07, and, with a PB of 2:08:14, the only one who has not run sub-2:08. A sub-2:08 PB and a World Championships medal remain the major goals of his career.

Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia) - 16 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:04:38
2013 World Marathon Majors champion
1st, 2013 London Marathon
1st, 2012 Chicago Marathon
1st, 2010 London Marathon
bronze, 2009 Berlin World Championships
bronze, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Emmanuel Mutai (Kenya) - 14 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:03:14
2011 World Marathon Majors champion
1st, 2011 London Marathon
silver, 2009 Berlin World Championships

Jaouad Gharib (Morocco) - 14 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:05:27
silver, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
gold, 2005 Helsinki World Championships
gold, 2003 Paris World Championships

Yemane Tsegay (Ethiopia) - 13 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:04:48
silver, 2015 Beijing World Championships

Feyisa Lelisa (Ethiopia) - 13 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:04:52
silver, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games
1st, 2016 Tokyo Marathon
bronze, 2011 Daegu World Championships

Abdelkader El Mouaziz (Morocco) - 13 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:06:46
1st, 2001 London Marathon
1st, 2000 New York City Marathon
1st, 1999 London Marathon

Stefano Baldini (Italy) - 13 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:07:22
gold, 2006 Goteborg European Championships
gold, 2004 Athens Olympic Games
bronze, 2003 Paris World Championships
bronze, 2001 Edmonton World Championships
gold, 1998 Budapest European Championships

Wilson Kipsang (Kenya) - 12 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:03:13
world record setter
2014 World Marathon Majors champion
1st, 2014 New York City Marathon
1st, 2014 London Marathon
1st, 2013 Berlin Marathon
bronze, 2012 London Olympic Games
1st, 2012 London Marathon

Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) - 12 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:03:59
2-time world record setter
1st, 2009 Berlin Marathon
1st, 2008 Berlin Marathon
1st, 2007 Berlin Marathon
1st, 2006 Berlin Marathon

Sammy Korir (Kenya) - 12 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:04:56

Bernard Kiprop (Kenya) - 12 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:06:19

Abel Kirui (Kenya) - 11 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:05:04
1st, 2016 Chicago Marathon
silver, 2012 London Olympic Games
gold, 2011 Daegu World Championships
gold, 2009 Berlin World Championships

Benson Barus (Kenya) - 11 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:07:07

Bong-ju Lee (South Korea) - 11 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:07:20
gold, 2002 Busan Asian Games
1st, 2001 Boston Marathon
gold, 1998 Bangkok Asian Games
silver, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games

Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 11 times sub-2:10

PB: 2:08:14
bronze, 2014 Incheon Asian Games

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...

Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year: Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu , gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri , silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025. Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon . Ko Kobayashi from the Shi...

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...

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