Tokyo Marathon

Tokyo Marathon

The 2008 Tokyo Marathon
DateFebruary
LocationTokyo, Japan
Event typeRoad
DistanceMarathon
Established2007 (17 years ago) (2007)
Course recordsMen: 2:02:16 (Benson Kipruto, 2024)

Women: 2:15:55 (Sutume Asefa Kebede , 2024)[a]
Wheelchair men: 1:20:57 (Marcel Hug, 2023)

Wheelchair women: 1:36:43 (Manuela Schär, 2023)
Official site[2]
Participants165 finishers (elite only) (2020)[1]
35,460 finishers (2019)[2]
2024 Tokyo Marathon

The Tokyo Marathon (東京マラソン, Tōkyō Marason) is an annual marathon sporting event in Tokyo, Japan. It is a World Athletics Platinum Label[3] marathon and one of the seven World Marathon Majors.[4] The latest edition of the race took place on 3 March 2024. It is sponsored by Tokyo Metro.

History

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See also: List of winners of the Tokyo Marathon

The first Tokyo Marathon was held on 18 February 2007. However, years prior to 2007, Tokyo Marathon consisted of two marathons: the Tokyo International Marathon which took place on even years, and Tokyo-New York Friendship International Marathon which took place on odd years. In the inaugural year, 1981, both marathons took place. However, because it was not possible to support two marathons a month apart in the same city, from 1982, the alternating format went into effect.[citation needed]

The 2007 marathon was also a representative selection race of the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka. The total number of participants was set at 30,000. Of that, 25,000 people signed up for the marathon, and 5,000 signed up for the 10K run.

Masakazu Fujiwara became the race's first Japanese male winner at the fourth edition.[5]

In February 2014, Dickson Chumba won in a record time of 2:05:42. This was only the second time a runner ran below 2h06 in Japan, after Tsegaye Kebede in Fukuoka Marathon (December 6, 2009). His runner-up, Tadese Tola did also run below 2:06, in a time of 2:05:57.[6]

In January 2020, rock musician Hyde released the song "Believing in Myself" as a single inspired by the event.[7] Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, only elite runners were invited to the 2020 Tokyo Marathon. All other participants were given a deferral to 2021.[8] The prior year's men's winner, Ethiopian Birhanu Legese, successfully defended his title by winning with a time of 2:04:15. In the women's marathon Israeli Lonah Chemtai Salpeter set a new course record, breaking the old one by over two minutes, by winning with a time of 2:17:45; the sixth-fastest women's marathon in the world of all time.[9][10][11][12]

The 2021 Tokyo Marathon was postponed to 17 October 2021 due to the pandemic. It was then postponed again to 6 March 2022; the event was still referred to as the 2021 Tokyo Marathon, and there was no 2022 Tokyo Marathon.[13][14][15] Additionally, all overseas runners were barred from competing, with their entries automatically transferred to 2023.[16][17]

Course

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External images
image icon Course map of full marathon in 2012[18]
image icon Course map of full marathon in 2017[19]
Start line at Shinjuku in 2019
Full marathon finish line in 2012

2007–2016

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Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building -> Tokyo Imperial Palace -> Hibiya Park (10 km Finish) -> Shinagawa -> Ginza -> Nihonbashi -> Asakusa -> Tsukiji -> Tokyo Big Sight (Full Marathon Finish)

Passing Tokyo Tower'Zōjō-ji in 2010

2017–

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Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building -> Iidabashi -> Nihonbashi (10 km Finish) -> Asakusa -> Koto (Halfway Point) -> Nihonbashi -> Ginza -> Shinagawa -> Hibiya Park -> Tokyo Station (Full Marathon Finish)[20]

Registration

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Passing Ginza's Wako store in 2008

Numbers

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When registrations closed for the 2015 Tokyo marathon 308,810 people had applied for the full marathon, and 1,014 had applied for the 10 km race. This gave a total number of 309,824 applicants and an oversubscription rate of 11.3 for the marathon.[21]

Full marathon finish line in 2019

For the 2019 event, there were 331,211 applicants. 330,271 of the applications were for the full marathon and 940 were for the 10 km race.[22]

Elite field

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Apart from the invited athletes, runners registered with JAAF who satisfy the following requirement can register in the Elite field.[23]

In 2014, the requirements were:

Distance Men Women
Full 2:23:00 2:54:00
Half 1:01:30 1:11:00
10 km 28:10 32:10

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ This was set during the Tokyo Marathon that took place on 6 March 2022, which was postponed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite taking place in 2022, it was still officially referred to as the 2021 Tokyo Marathon.

References

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  1. ^ "Results and Records from Past Races TOKYO MARATHON 2020 | TOKYO MARATHON 2021". 2020-10-09. Archived from the original on 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  2. ^ "Results and Records from Past Races TOKYO MARATHON 2019 | TOKYO MARATHON 2021". 2020-10-09. Archived from the original on 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  3. ^ World Athletics Platinum Label Road Racing. World Athletics (2020). Retrieved on 2020-01-15.
  4. ^ "Tokyo Marathon joins World Marathon Majors series - ESPN". Espn.go.com. 2012-11-02. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  5. ^ "News". iaaf.org. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
  6. ^ [1] Archived March 10, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "HYDE to Release New Single Inspired by Tokyo Marathon 2020". Jame World. 30 January 2020. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  8. ^ "To the registered runners of the Tokyo Marathon 2020". www.marathon.tokyo/ (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  9. ^ "Birhanu Legese and Lonah Chemtai Salpeter win Tokyo Marathon". Athletics Weekly. 1 March 2020.
  10. ^ "東京マラソン リーダーボード(速報)". Leaderboard.marathon.tokyo. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  11. ^ "Twitter". Mobile.twitter.com. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  12. ^ "Twitter". Mobile.twitter.com. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  13. ^ "Regarding the Tokyo Marathon 2021 | TOKYO MARATHON 2021". 2020-10-09. Archived from the original on 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  14. ^ "Tokyo marathon 2021 postponed until after Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns". Reuters. 2020-10-09. Archived from the original on 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  15. ^ "Tokyo Marathon 2021 Postponed | TOKYO MARATHON 2021". Archived from the original on 17 September 2021.
  16. ^ "2021 Tokyo Marathon closed to international runners". Archived from the original on 27 June 2021.
  17. ^ "＜To Runners Residing Abroad＞Decision on Overseas Runners for the Toky…". Archived from the original on 27 June 2021.
  18. ^ "コース紹介 | 東京マラソン 2012". Archived from the original on 9 February 2012.
  19. ^ "Course Map | TOKYO MARATHON 2017". Archived from the original on 12 November 2016.
  20. ^ "Course Map（Provisional） | TOKYO MARATHON 2018". Marathon.tokyo. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  21. ^ "Tokyo Marathon 2016 Runner Application Status Update | TOKYO MARATHON 2016". Archived from the original on 2015-09-04. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
  22. ^ "Tokyo Marathon 2019 General Runner Application Status Update!". Tokyo Marathon. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
  23. ^ "Guideline for applicants | TOKYO MARATHON 2014 : The Day We Unite". Tokyo42195.org. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
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