MADRID, 6 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, two-time Olympic champion and current marathon world record holder, won the Tokyo marathon this Sunday, smashing the record for the event and establishing the fourth best record of all time, while his compatriot Brigid Kosgei did the same in the women’s event with the third best record in history.
In a time of 2 hours, 2 minutes and 40 seconds, Kipchoge covered the 42.195 kilometers of the Japanese capital circuit to achieve the fourth best result in history in the distance, just 61 seconds from his world record.
With this, the 37-year-old athlete has already won four of the six main marathons -four wins in London, three in Berlin and one in Chicago-; he still has wins in Boston and New York to complete the challenge he set for himself before retiring from professional athletics.
For his part, his compatriot Amos Kipruto, World Cup bronze, managed to finish second by stopping the clock 2:03:13 and after keeping Kipchoge’s pace until kilometer 36, while the Ethiopian Tamirat Tola was third with a mark of 2 :04:14.
In the women’s category, the Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, current world record holder for the distance, also broke the record for the Japanese event to achieve victory with a time of 2:16:02, which was the third best record in history.
Ethiopians Ashete Bekere and Gotytom Gebreslase, the two previous winners in Berlin, completed the podium in second and third place, setting times of 2:17:58 and 2:18:18, respectively.