2024 Tokyo Marathon Preview
On the same weekend that the indoor season culminates at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, the 2024 marathon calendar will open its account on the streets of Tokyo. Headlined by Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan, the field is surprisingly strong as athletes adjust their schedules in preparation for the Paris Olympics later this year.
Elite Men
Whenever Kipchoge toes a start line, rumours of record-breaking times and dominant wins run amok, and the 2024 Tokyo Marathon is no different. The Kenyan great hardly needs an introduction, but I’ll give him a quick one anyway: he is the fastest marathoner alive and boasts an unprecedented 11 World Marathon Major titles, a World Championship title, and two Olympic gold medals. He suffered a rare loss last year in Boston but rebounded nicely to win his fifth Berlin Marathon title and will start in Tokyo as the overwhelming favourite.
That said, Kipchoge is now 39 years old, and many think his time at the top must surely be drawing to a close. In the same breath, Kenenisa Bekele, 41, shocked the world with an incredible comeback run in Valencia last December to finish fourth against a deep field, so perhaps Kipchoge has a healthy handful of strong performances remaining.
Kipchoge will line up against 11 other men who have cracked the 2:06 barrier. Among those are defending Tokyo Marathon champion Chalu Deso, 2023 World Marathon Champion Victor Kiplangat, and Vincent Ngetich, who finished runner-up to Kipchoge in the German capital last year on debut. These men should make the fight for the minor medals entertaining, but if Kipchoge is anywhere near his top form, they are unlikely to challenge for the title.
The Kenyan icon used his Tokyo Marathon victory in 2022 as a stepping stone towards his world-record performance in Berlin later that year. He returns to the Japanese capital in hopes of using the race as a springboard to success once again: this time, to an unprecedented Olympic Marathon three-peat in Paris.
That task has been made a little bit easier by the tragic passing of current marathon world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum. While the two men had never met, their lives had become intertwined on account of their marathon careers. Kipchoge paid his respects to his young compatriot at the pre-race press conference and, when asked, acknowledged that the competition would be different in Paris because of Kiptum’s absence.
Elite Women
Sifan Hassan is the most interesting athlete in distance running at the moment. The Dutch superstar has only run two marathons, but both outings have revealed her extraordinary talent.
In early 2023, Hassan won the London Marathon despite stopping twice to nurse a hip injury. She then turned her focus back to the track ahead of the World Athletics Championships, where she produced three medal-worthy performances over the 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m. Not two months later, she was back at a marathon start line, this time in Chicago. It was here, in the same race that Kiptum set the men’s world record, where Hassan lowered her personal best to 2:13:44 and asserted herself as the second fastest woman in history.
The Dutchwoman, who had shared her only two marathon podiums with Kiptum, was also asked about his passing in the pre-race conference.
“When I heard it, it really broke my heart, and that day, I was really depressed. It's very sad. What can you do sometimes if things happen like that? It's just hard but I think for a couple of days it really affected me. He was so young.”
The prospect of Hassan in Tokyo is a particularly exciting one. In her two previous marathon builds, she has always had one eye on the track – this year is different. If she can run the second fastest time in history while training for distances as short as the 1500m, then the marathon-specific training she has enjoyed over the past few months could put her within touching distance of the world record.
Tokyo is also important for Hassan as she considers what events she will compete in at the Olympics. She holds every major European record from the 1500m to the marathon, so will hardly be at the mercy of the selectors. At the Tokyo Olympics, she competed in the 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m, winning the latter two and clinching bronze in the 1500m. We still don’t know what direction she will go come Paris, but if tomorrow’s race goes her way, we will likely see her aim to become the first woman in history to medal on the track and the road at the same Olympics.
Hassan’s first job, however, is to win in Tokyo. On paper, her fiercest competitor is reigning World Champion Amane Shankule. Shankule sits at number five on the all-time list with a personal best of 2:14:58 and hasn’t finished off the podium in a marathon since 2018. Defending champion Rosemary Wanjiru will also be on the start line as she returns to the Japanese capital in hopes of retaining her title.
Finally, marathon veteran Lonah Salpeter will be looking to stamp her authority on the top order. The Israeli is one of the most consistent athletes in the field and has previously won the Tokyo Marathon. If Hassan demands a quick early pace, Salpeter’s experience should stand her in good stead to pick off some over-ambitious runners in the closing stages and find herself on yet another podium.
Eliud Kipchoge (L) prepares with his team ahead of the 2024 Tokyo Marathon
The 2024 Tokyo Marathon is set to open the road running season in style, with two of the biggest names in the sport lining up ahead of their historic Olympic campaigns. You can access the official site here.