World and reigning Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich is in Japan to feature in the 2015 Tokyo Marathon on Sunday – 22 February.
The Tokyo Marathon is one of the six races that make up the World Marathon Major Series—London, Berlin, Boston, Chicago and New York make up the other five.
It will be Kiprotich’s second appearance in the feat at this World Marathon Major (WMM) event having taken third place in a time of 2:07:50 at the 2012 edition.
The Ugandan runner beat Ethiopian great Haile Gerbreselassie to that podium finish then and will now have to run besides his tight competition and defending champion Dickson Chumba.
The Kenyan completed the 26.2-mile route in a course-record time of two hours, five minutes and 45 seconds in 2014 later improving his personal best to 2:04:32 at the 2014 Chicago Marathon.
Kiprotich who prepares to defend his gold at the World Athletics Championships at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China later in August told AFP that he was more concerned with racking up titles than chasing the speed demons ahead the Marathon.
“For me, it’s more about winning races than times,” the 25-year-old whose personal best (PB) stands at 2:07:20 – a national record, said.
“A journalist asked me last year if I thought it was possible to break the world record in 2:02 and I said ‘Ooh, it’s impossible.’ But at the Berlin Marathon (Dennis Kimetto) ran 2:02 so I was wrong to say that. I believe that with good preparation and good weather that someone can run under 2:02.”
According to the organisers, Tokyo is expected to be cloudy during the race time favourable weather for the showdown. Other top competitors in the men’s division include Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai, who comes in with a blistering personal best of 2:03:02, and Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia. The race will be broadcast live on SS7 at 3.05am.
