Ethiopia’s Endeshaw Negesse crossed the finish line after 2 hours, 6 minutes ahead of Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda to win the 2015 Tokyo Marathon on Sunday.
Kiprotich crossed 33 seconds later to beat last year’s winner also defending champion Dickson Chumba of Kenya to second place. Negesse won the Tokyo Marathon to force an Ethiopian sweep of the men’s and women’s titles in the first event of the World Marathon Majors series.
Ethiopia’s Birhane Dibaba won the women’s race with a time of 2:23:14. Helah Kiprop of Kenya came second with a time of 2:24:03 followed by Ethiopian Tiki Gelena in 2:24:26.
Close to 36,000 runners took part in Sunday’s race through the streets of Tokyo amid tight security following recent threats of terrorism. Ugandan hero Kiprotich went to the track in honour of the memory of his baby daughter Elizabeth who passed away from a respiratory illness last month, and winning was all that remained on his mind.
The 25-year-old who will now wait till August to defend his gold at the World Athletics Championships at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China improved his personal best from 2:07:20 to 2:06:33.
There was a bit of rain and the cold according to Ethiopia’s Endeshaw Negesse and it may have affected Kiprotich and other athletes who anticipated better weather.
“Today’s race was a bit difficult because of the cold temperatures and slight rain,” Negesse said. “But it’s a great result and should allow me to earn a place on my national team.”
Kiprotich and colleagues ran through Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building – Iidabashi – Imperial Palace – Hibiya – Shinagawa – Ginza – Nihonbashi – Asakusa Kaminari-mon – Tsukiji – Toyosu – Tokyo Big Sight.
He surged to the front after 35 km as Imai also made a big move to overtake Tsegaye Kebede. Kiprotich moved into the final 9.5km with other seven men.
With 2km to go, Negesse battled Kenya’s Chumba as Kiprotich close, gathered all his remaining energy to launch an onslaught. Kiprotich was still third into the final kilometre with Negesse in clear lead but the Ugandan fought hard to finish second, 33 seconds just after Negesse had crossed.
