Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei both run third fastest times in history to smash course records at the 2022 Tokyo Marathon

Eliud Kipchoge winning the 2022 Tokyo Marathon in an unofficial 2:02.40, photo courtesy of NN Running team

The Tokyo Marathon just finished, and our friend, Justin Lagat wrote this story just after the broadcast ended in Kenya. Sorry to see that Kenyan fans did not see Brigid Kosgei finish. There are hiccups in the global broadcast of marathons. Also saw that @fast_women noted how little the women’s race was covered on the broadcast.

Brigid Kosgei ran an amazing race to win the women’s marathon this morning at the 2022 Tokyo Marathon, creating a gap of almost two minutes to run the third-fastest time of 2:16:02 in the history of the marathon. This becomes a new course record for the Tokyo Marathon.

Eliud Kipchoge, too, continued to inspire the world with another record-breaking run where he also set a new course record of 2:02:40 to comfortably win the race. Amos Kipruto who comes from almost the same place as Kipchoge in Nandi County in came second in 2:03:13; the 33 seconds between them being probably less than the kilometers that separate the homes the two runners were born. Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola was third in 2:04:14.

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Eliud Kipchoge heading to the start of the Tokyo Marathon, photo by NN Running Team

Kipchoge definitely needed this win more than anybody else in the elite field as it was part of his quest to win all the world marathon majors. He now has two more to go; the New York City and the Boston Marathons. So far, he has already won the Chicago, the London, Berlin, and now the Tokyo marathon.

Kenyan fans woke up at 3 AM in the morning to cheer on their marathon runners, but it was a bit frustrating to find a working link to watch the race here, and there was no broadcaster airing the race as well. By the time I found a working link on Facebook, the runners were already 9.5km with a pack of 8 slightly ahead of Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata.

Shortly after getting the link, the leading motor-cycle took the leading runners in a wrong turn momentarily and Kitata almost closed the gap again, but the gap quickly grew again.

The lead pack at the 15k, 2022 Tokyo Marathon, photo by Justin Lagat via TV

At around the 25km mark, another Ethiopian, Mosinet Geremew who had the second-fastest time on paper was suddenly walking beside the course, leaving three Kenyans; Kipchoge, Kipruto, and Jonathan Korir, and one Ethiopian; Tamirat Tola in the leading pack.

At around 32km, Kipruto for the first time began to run side by side with Kipchoge. It appeared as though Kipchoge’s main rival was going to come from his own country. Was Kipruto going to upset the world’s greatest marathon runner?

No. Eliud Kipchoge seemed to answer that as he began to hit the front again at 35km with Kipruto beginning to hang like a shadow behind him. A gap began to grow at 36km and continued growing until Kipchoge crossed the finish line in a new course record.

There had been a great battle in the women’s race between Brigid Kosgei and Gotytom Gebreslase in the second half of the race before Kosgei finally got to break away and do a solo run in the last kilometers of the race.

Brigid Kosgei, photo by London Marathon Media Communications

Unfortunately, the link was cut off before Kenyan fans could watch Kosgei crossing the tape to set a new course record in one of the fastest times in the history of women marathon running. Her time of 2:16:02 is the third-fastest time in history! Ashete Bekere came second in 2:17:58 ahead of Gebreslase in 2:18:18.

Elliott Denman

One of the finest and most prolific writers in our sport, Elliott Denman has written about our sport since 1956, when he represented the US in 1956 Olympic Games at the 50k race walk, the longest event on the Olympic schedule. A close observer of the sport, Elliott writes about all of our sport, combining the skills of a well honed writer with the style of ee Cummings. We are quite fortunate to have Elliott Denman as a friend and advisor.

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