Sports

Tokyo Marathon: Brigid Kosgei withdraws

Saturday 01st March, 2025 05:06 PM| By Kiplagat Sang

The organisers of the 2025 Tokyo Marathon have stated that Kenya’s experienced runner Brigid Kosgei has withdrawn.

The withdrawal means that Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede is the fastest in the field, with a personal best that places her eighth on the women’s world marathon all-time list, according to World Athletics.

Defending champion Kebede, who set a Japanese all-comers’ record of 2:15:55 when winning in Tokyo in 2024, will race against four other women who have dipped under 2:18 in a field that features a total of nine sub-2:20 runners. Kebede, 30, second in the Chicago Marathon, returns to racing for the first time since retaining her title at the Tata Steel Kolkata World 25K in December.

With Kosgei’s withdrawal, Kenya’s unit will be led by Rosemary Wanjiru, who is returning after her victory in 2023. Wanjiru’s personal best is the 2:16:14 she ran when finishing runner-up to Kebede in Tokyo last year. That puts her 10th on the world all-time list and on Sunday she will race her first marathon since that second-place finish in Japan’s capital.

Ethiopia’s Tigist Ketema, who ran 2:16:07 on her debut in Dubai just over a year ago, is another leading contender, along with her compatriots Hawi Feysa, who won in Frankfurt in October in 2:17:25, 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase and 2021 London Marathon runner-up Degitu Azimeraw.