If there was one consistent theme through all 4 races at the Tokyo Marathon this year it was risk. With temperatures nearing 20˚ and sunny conditions in the forecast pacing plans audaciously called for 2:01 for the lead men and 2:12 for the lead women, with the next 3 groups on both sides all slated for very ambitious times.
The men's wheelchair race kicked things off, 2024 Tokyo winner and NR holder Tomoki Suzuki going after his own NR completely solo and coming up with a 1:19:14 CR that saw him beat 2nd place by over 11 minutes. The women's race was a CR-pace showdown between Paris Paralympics gold and bronze medalists Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland and Susannah Scaroni of the U.S.A. that saw them locked together until 40 km. Debrunner had that something else that makes her the world record holder, throwing down to open 32 seconds on Scaroni over the last 2 km, both breaking the CR but Debrunner getting the win in a stellar 1:35:56.
The women's marathon was a completely one-woman show up front as CR holder Sutume Asefa Kebede of Ethiopia didn't just settle for a title defense. With 2 pacers and an army of amateur men surrounding her she set off on 2:12 pace and held it late into the race, incrementing toward 2:13 but still on track for one of the fastest times ever run. But past 30 km as temperatures suddenly spiked over 18˚ she started to fade, watching has 2:13 slipped away, then 2:14, then even the 2:15:55 CR she ran last year. With a big push over the last km she held on for the win in 2:16:31, close to a crash-and-burn but still a stellar world-leading time.
It was just enough to hold off Kenyan Winfridah Moraa Moseti and fellow Ethiopian Hawi Feysa, both of whom turned in PB runs off more conservative starts to take 2nd and 3rd in 2:16:56 and 2:17:00. Magdalyne Masai and 2023 Tokyo winner Rosemary Wanjiru both cracked 2:20 for 4th and 5th, with Desi Jisa Mokonin just missing the Bahraini NR with a 2:20:07 PB for 6th. China's Deshun Zhang turned in the most surprising performance of the day in 9th, dropping a massive 3-minute+ PB of 2:20:53 to come in at all-time Chinese #3. Australia's Jessica Stenson also PBd with a 2:22:56 for 10th, clearing her goal of a sub-2:23 clocking to have a chance at making the Australian team for September's Tokyo World Championships. Japan's Yuka Ando and Ai Hosoda were both off their best, Ando 11th in 2:23:37 and Hosoda only 13th in 2:27:43.
The men's race set out with a lead group of 8 on 2:01 pace supported by 4 pacers. Almost all the heavyweights were there: CR holder Benson Kipruto and fellow 2:02 runners Deresa Geleta and Birhanu Legese, 2:03 men Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich and Tadese Takele, 2:04 runners Tsegaye Getachew and Titus Kipruto, and debuting collegian Aoi Ota from 2025 Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University. Ota, who ran the equivalent of a 58:56 half marathon at Hakone last year, said he was going to run with the lead group and shoot for the win no matter what, and no matter how suicidal that race plan might have been he stuck to it.
Most of the way that he lasted he ran ahead of two of the pacers, looking calm and smooth until he didn't. That happened just after 22 km, about as far as he had ever raced before, but while he dropped from the lead pack to his credit Ota didn't just blow up. He kept going initially, passing last year's 5th-placer Getachew when he abruptly tied up holding his left hip at 25 km. But there was no escaping paying for an unrealistic race plan, and around 30 km Ota dropped out.
That left 6 up front, and a move from Ngetich and the last pacer broke things up. Only Geleta and Takele were able to bridge the gap, and from 30 km until the last turnaround near 37 km all 3 stayed together. The least experienced of the 3, Takele made the race-winning move near the turnaround, dropping Ngetich, then Geleta, and staying true to his speed as he ran alone. Checking his watch repeatedly in the last km, Takele broke his PB by 1 second to take his first World Marathon Majors win in a world-leading 2:03:23. Geleta hung on to 2nd in 2:03:51, Ngetich 3rd in 2:04:00 and Titus Kipruto a way back in 4th in 2:05:34.
The 2nd and 3rd groups went out on 2:03 and 2:04 pace, but as temperatures rose they provided a lot of excitement as some paid for that kind of high pace and others cut them down. Mulugeta Asefa Uma took the top spot from outside of the lead group, just clipping last year's winner Benson Kipruto for 5th in 2:05:46, with both Kipruto and debuting Geoffrey Toroitich clocking the same time as him in 6th and 7th. Sweden's Suldan Hassan ran down 5000 m and 10000 m world record holder Joshua Cheptegei for 8th in a national record 2:05:57, with Cheptegei short of his target of 2:04 but still running a PB of 2:05:59 for 9th.
The race for the top Japanese spot was as dramatic as you could have asked for. Ota was the lone Japanese man to go with Group 1, and his blowup put him out of contention. Group 2 had all-time Japanese #2 Yohei Ikeda, Paris Olympics 6th-placer Akira Akasaki and 2:07 man Yuhei Urano, and Group 3 had a million others. Urano was the first to drop off the 2nd group, but when Akasaki faltered near 25 km Urano was quick to run him down. Ikeda held on longer, but when he started to slip Urano was there.
But behind him, 2:06 runner Hiroto Inoue and last month's National Corporate Half Marathon winner Tsubasa Ichiyama were closing. The last 5 km of the race were a complex canvas as Ikeda, Urano, Inoue and Ichiyama all closed on each other simultaneously, and when the paint finished splattering it was Ichiyama, the dark horse of the crew, who came out on top. Running down 2019-2020 Tokyo winner Legese in the final km Ichiyama took 10th and top Japanese in 2:06:00, a big PB that put him at all-time Japanese #9 and the fastest marathon ever run in Puma shoes.
"I'm not good at downhills, so the first 10 km of the race was hard," Ichiyama said post-race. "There were so many people that it was hard to run my own pace, and it was really uncomfortable. But between 20 and 25 km I finally clicked into my own rhythm, and I just focused on my plan of closing hard over the last quarter of the race like I did at the National Corporate Half."
Inoue was 12th in a 2:06:14 PB and Urano 13th in a PB of 2:06:23. Ikeda held on to 14th in 2:06:48, with Akasaki fading to 17th in 2:07:48 after getting run down by Tatsuya Maruyama and Chinese NR holder Jie He. At least for the Japanese men it was pretty clearly a day that rewarded a more conservative approach early on, but still it's hard to fault Ikeda and Akasaki for taking a shot at the next level. Impossible to get there without taking risks, and they did.
But in the most surprising men's result of the day, Masato Arao, winner of last month's Ome 30 km after joining the ND Software corporate team in January from a background as an amateur runner, ran an almost 10-minute PB of 2:08:05 for 19th. That was a massively risky run of its own, and paired with his Ome win it positions Arao as one of the most interesting men active in Japan right now.
Selection for the Japanese men's marathon team for September's Tokyo World Championships is about as complex and competitive as you'd expect, and despite a big breakthrough and competitive run, Ichiyama isn't likely to be picked for the team off his Tokyo performance. Yuya Yoshida won December's Fukuoka International Marathon in 2:05:16 and Ryota Konda debuted in Osaka last week in 2:05:39 for 2nd. But with Ichiyama's former Chuo Gakuin University teammate Kyohei Hosoya having run 2:05:58 for the 2nd Japanese spot in Osaka and the JAAF giving a preferential spot to the winner of the current JMC Series, it's hard to see a scenario in which Ichiyama does better than being picked as alternate. Even that would come down to a judgment over the relative value of a 2:05:58 for 2nd Japanese in freezing cold conditions and a 2:06:00 for 1st Japanese in heat closer to what the conditions will be like at September's Worlds. The final decision will come after next weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon.
Tokyo Marathon 2025
Tokyo, 2 Mar. 2025
Women's Marathon
1. Sutume Asefa Kebede (Ethiopia) - 2:16:31 - WL
2. Winfridah Moraa Moseti (Kenya) - 2:16:56 - PB
3. Hawi Feysa (Ethiopia) - 2:17:00 - PB
4. Magdalyne Masai (Kenya) - 2:19:28
5. Rosemary Wanjiru (Kenya) - 2:19:57
6. Desi Jisa Mokonin (Bahrain) - 2:20:07 - PB
7. Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) - 2:20:25
8. Degitu Azimeraw (Ethiopia) - 2:20:26
9. Deshun Zhang (China) - 2:20:53 - PB
10. Jessica Stenson (Australia) - 2:22:56 - PB
11. Yuka Ando (Japan/Shimamura) - 2:23:37
12. Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) - 2:27:11
13. Ai Hosoda (Japan/Edion) - 2:27:43
14. Rie Kawauchi (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:29:28
15. Yukari Nagatomo (Japan/Memolead) - 2:30:37 - PB
16. Kaori Morita (Japan/Panasonic) - 2:35:04
17. Haruna Takano (Japan/PTC) - 2:38:33 - PB
18. Yukie Matsumura (Japan/Comodi Iida) - 2:38:44
19. Chiaki Morikawa (Japan/ALA Promo Sports) - 2:38:46
20. Chisato Kagaya (Japan/Tokyo Metro) - 2:38:59 - PB
21. Anjing Jiao (China) - 2:40:01
22. Reyna I. Rivera (Mexico) - 2:41:20 - PB
23. Eri Suzuki (Japan/Noshiro Yamamoto T&F Assoc.) - 2:41:42 - PB
24. Yuki Mizuseda (Japan/Chiba T&F Assoc.) - 2:41:58
25. Yoshimi Tanaka (Japan/Hiratsuka T&F Assoc.) - 2:42:02 - PB
-----
DNF - Tigist Ketema (Ethiopia)
DNF - Tomomi Sawahata (Japan/Saitama T&F Assoc.)
Men's Marathon
1. Tadese Takele (Ethiopia) - 2:03:23 - PB, WL
2. Deresa Geleta (Ethiopia) - 2:03:51
3. Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich (Kenya) - 2:04:00
4. Titus Kipruto (Kenya) - 2:05:34
5. Mulugeta Asega Uma (Ethiopia) - 2:05:46
6. Benson Kipruto (Kenya) - 2:05:46
7. Geoffrey Toroitich (Kenya) - 2:05:46 - debut
8. Suldan Hassan (Sweden) - 2:05:57 - NR
9. Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) - 2:05:59 - PB
10. Tsubasa Ichiyama (Japan/Sunbelx) - 2:06:00 - PB
11. Birhanu Legese (Ethiopia) - 2:06:06
12. Hiroto Inoue (Japan/Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:06:14 - PB
13. Yuhei Urano (Japan/Fujitsu) - 2:06:23 - PB
14. Yohei Ikeda (Japan/Kao) - 2:06:48
15. Tatsuya Maruyama (Japan/Toyota) - 2:07:06 - PB
16. Jie He (China) - 2:07:20
17. Akira Akasaki (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:07:48
18. Masato Arao (Japan/ND Soft) - 2:08:05 - PB
19. Kenya Sonota (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:08:14
20. Ken Nakayama (Japan/Honda) - 2:08:24 - PB
21. Shuho Dairokuno (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:08:53
22. Vincent Raimoi (Kenya/Suzuki) - 2:08:58
23. Leul Gebresilase (Ethiopia) - 2:09:16
24. Shaohui Yang (China) - 2:09:34
25. Stephen Kissa (Uganda) - 2:09:34
26. Shogo Nakamura (Japan/Fujistu) - 2:09:55
27. Shin Kimura (Japan/Honda) - 2:10:13
28. Kiyoshi Koga (Japan/Yasukawa Denki) - 2:10:15
29. Hiroshi Ichida (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:10:21 - PB
30. Ryuichi Yoshioka (Japan/Honda Tochigi) - 2:10:49 - PB
31. Tomohiro Fujimura (Japan/Suzuki) - 2:11:29
32. Yousheng Guan (China) - 2:11:36 - PB
33. Shintaro Miyakawa (Japan/Tokyo Police) - 2:11:39 - PB
34. Taiki Suzuki (Japan/ND Software) - 2:11:51 - PB
35. Takayuki Iida (Japan/Fujitsu) - 2:11:59
36. Yuichi Yasui (Japan/Toyota) - 2:12:07
37. Hendrik Pfeiffer (Germany) - 2:12:27
38. Wataru Tochigi (Japan/Hiramatsu Byoin) - 2:12:28 - PB
39. Rintaro Takeda (Japan/Yakult) - 2:12:29
40. Ichitaka Yamashita (Japan/Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:12:34
41. Hiromasa Kurahashi (Japan/Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 2:12:45
42. Ryotaro Natori (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 2:12:56 - PB
43. Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Kenya/Track Tokyo) - 2:13:06
44. Kenji Yamamoto (Kenya/Mazda) - 2:13:20
45. Koki Yoshioka (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:13:47
46. Yudai Fukuda (Japan/Ishikawa T&F Assoc.) - 2:14:26 - PB
47. Yuya Yamashita (Japan/Sunbelx) - 2:14:30
48. Naoki Aiba (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:14:32
49. Hiroaki Furukawa (Japan/Tokyo Univ. Grad School) - 2:14:36 - PB
50. Xiangdong Wu (China) - 2:14:44
-----
DNF - Tsegaye Getachew (Ethiopia)
DNF - Takashi Ichida (Japan/Asahi Kasei)
DNF - Kazuma Ito (Japan/Sumitomo Denko)
DNF - Benjamin Ngandu (Kenya/Yonezawa T&F Assoc.)
DNF - Yusuke Ogura (Japan/Yakult)
DNF - Aoi Ota (Japan/Aoyama Gakuin Univ.)
DNF - Amedework Walelegn (Ethiopia)
DNF - Dawit Wolde (Ethiopia)
Wheelchair Women
1. Catherine Debrunner (Switzerland) - 1:35:56 - CR
2. Susannah Scaroni (U.S.A.) - 1:36:28 (CR) - PB
3. Zhaoqian Zhou (China) - 1:37:46 - PB
4. Manuel Schar (Switzerland) - 1:37:50
5. Madison De Rozario (Australia) - 1:40:32 - PB
Wheelchair Men
1. Tomoki Suzuki (Japan) - 1:19:14 - CR
2. Xingchuan Luo (China) - 1:30:28
3. Ying Zhang (China) - 1:30:57 - PB
4. Sho Watanabe (Japan) - 1:30:58
5. Hiroki Nishida (Japan) - 1:31:03
photos © 2025 Montri Boonyasat / Running Insider, all rights reserved
text © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
Sadly my pre-race comment about Ota risking to destroy himself after 25-30 km turned out to be too accurate as well.
Have to say that seeing him run side by side with Yegon, the only man to ever run faster than him on 3rd and 4th stage at Hakone was pretty special.
His 61 half marathon split was run very comfortably, should be a good base lookin ahead.
I don't know what to make of his post race comments where if translation was correct he said he loved the experience and he will now working to win gold at LA2028. Craziness, euphoria after his first marathon, no idea but seeing a youngster this bold should fire up everyone starting from his competitors.
I was expecting more from Ikeda and Akasaki but like your article states, at this point you have to risk it sometimes to see how far you can go.
Probably looking forward it should be more comfortable going with a negative split in mind but still loved the attitude of the guys who ran today.
I have no idea who will be selected for the world championship, with the september temperatures they should really take into consideration who suffers more with heat and I don't think looking at it strictly from accumulated points could be a limiting factor.
I managed to watch the race on Eurosport and enjoyed the commentary, good work guys.