Cheptegei and Jisa register lifetime best performances in Tokyo
Olympic 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei executed a much improved second outing over the 42.2km distance, recording a PB of 2:05:59 to place ninth in the Tokyo Marathon today.
In the opening race of the 2025 Abbott World Marathon Majors season, the Ugandan NN Running Team star scalped exactly three minutes from his previous best.
Two-time former Tokyo Marathon winner Birhanu Legese of the NN Running Team was in contention for a podium finish at 30km but faded in the latter stages to place 11th – finishing seven seconds adrift of Cheptegei.
The NN Running Team also earned two top ten finishes in a highly-competitive women’s race. Desi Jisa of Bahrain carved 40 seconds from her lifetime best to place a highly respectable sixth in 2:20:07. Meanwhile, her NN Running Team teammate Ethiopian Degitu Azimeraw produced a solid run to clock 2:20:26 for eighth.
Competing in warm temperatures of 13°C rising to 16°C conditions proved testing in the Japanese capital.
In the men’s race Vincent Yegon led the field through the first checkpoint in a healthy 14:24 – heading a dozen strong lead group also containing Legese.
Cheptegei, alongside his training partner and fellow NN Running Team athlete Stephen Kissa, went through the 5km mark in the chase group a further 15 seconds back.
The theme continued for the first half as the lead pack extended their advantage thanks to an electric pace at the head of affairs.
Halfway was reached in a slick 1:01:17 with the two pacemakers followed by Legese, the 2019 and 2020 champion, in a group which also included Takele, Derese Geleta, Tsegaye Getachew, defending champion Benson Kipruto, Titus Kipruto, Vincent Ngetich and Japanese hope Aoi Ota.
Still in the chase group, Cheptegei and Kissa hit the halfway split some 50 seconds further back.
Ota was the first to crack in the lead group while at 28km the race quickly splintered. As the final pacemaker Shadrack Kimining dropped out at 30km (1:27:21) – it was Ngetich, Takele and Geleta disputing the lead – with Legese sitting fourth a tantalising five seconds shy of the lead trio.
At 35km – passed in 1:42:13 – the top three remained locked in a dogfight for victory with Legese holding fourth some 37 seconds adrift. Kissa and Cheptegei, meanwhile, were placed seventh and eighth poised to unleash their final effort.
Out front, the decisive break was made at 38km by Takele, who finished third in the 2023 BMW Berlin Marathon. Launching a vicious attack first Ngetich and then Geleta were dropped and the Ethiopian would not be denied the greatest victory of his career.
His compatriot Geleta – the seventh fastest marathoner in history – held on for second in 2:03:51 with Ngetich securing a second successive third place finish in the Tokyo Marathon nine seconds adrift.
Cheptegei battled to the finish line and was rewarded with a significant personal best in ninth while Legese, for so long a contender in the lead group, placed 11th.
A heavily fatigued Kissa struggled in the latter stages and finished 25th in 2:09:34.
In the women’s race, defending champion Kebede made her intentions clear from the outset as the 2024 champion opened up a 34-second lead on the field after just 5km, reached in 15:35.
Pouring on at a relentless pace, Kebebe reached the halfway mark in 1:06:20 – a minute-and-a-half clear of Tigist Ketema her nearest pursuer. NN Running Team pair Azimeraw and Jisa (1:08:23) featured as part of an eight-strong group in the battle for third.
Jisa, who set her previous personal best of 2:20:47 at the 2023 Doha Marathon, was enjoying the race of her life and passed 25km in fifth (1:20:59), with Azimeraw, a former Amsterdam and Barcelona Marathon winner, a further 30 seconds back in tenth.
By 35km Jisa had slipped to sixth but maintained that position to the finish to complete the finest marathon of her career – finishing a tantalising five second shy of the Bahrain record. Azimeraw finished strongly to place eighth.
Kedebe slowed significantly in the second half of the race but held on to claim back-to-back titles. Winfridah Moseti of Kenya in 2:16:56 and Ethiopian Hawi Feysa (2:17:00) both recorded personal best times in second and third.