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

Hayashi Morozumi Steps Down as Tokai Head Coach

Hayashi Morozumi , 59, has stepped down as head coach at Tokai University following its 12th-place finish at this year's 102nd Hakone Ekiden. Morozumi will serve in an executive advisory role to Noriaki Nishide , 51, who moves up from the Tokai coaching staff to take on head coach duties. Morozumi came to at his alma mater Tokai in 2011 after serving at head coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. , where the team won the 2008 National High School Ekiden anchored by future marathon NR holder Suguru Osako . In 2019 Morozumi led Tokai to its first-ever Hakone title, making him the only coach to win both the biggest high school and college titles in his career. When Morozumi became head coach at Saku Chosei in 1995 he personally drove a bulldozer to build a cross-country loop at the school, combining his innovative coaching theory with deep passion to build the Saku Chosei program from zero to national championships in just 13 years. Along with Osako, now 34, some of his key proteges ...
Post a Comment
Read more

JAAF Announces Marathon Teams for Nagoya Asian Games

On Mar. 25 the JAAF announced Japan's marathon team lineups for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) and Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) make up the men's team, with Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) and Mikuni Yada (Edion) representing Japan in the women's marathon. Each country can field up to 2 men and 2 women per marathon team at the Asian Games. The top-ranked male and female athletes in the 2025-26 MGC Series rankings were given first priority, with the second slots going to people with high-level performances in the 2025-26 MGC Series. Yoshida ran 2:05:16 to win the 2024 Fukuoka International Marathon, and at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon ran an excellent 2:06:59 to take the top Japanese spot in the race and in the MGC rankings. After having run the Tokyo World Championships marathon last fall this will be his second-straight marathon national team in a major international championships. Yamashita ran 2:06:18 at February's Osak...
Post a Comment
Read more

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."...
81 comments
Read more