2022 Tokyo Marathon Women's Preview

The women’s race at the 2022 Tokyo Marathon has a little something for everyone. There’s Brigid Kosgei, the Kenyan world record holder attempting to reassert herself as the world’s best marathoner after Peres Jepchirchir claimed that title in 2021.

There’s Angela Tanui, the breakout star who won three marathons last year, capped by a 2:17:57 course record in Amsterdam. And for American fans, there’s Sara Hall, fresh off setting a US half marathon record in Houston in January and ready to mix it up with the best in the world on a flat, fast course.

Women Elite Entries:

Brigid Kosgei (Kenya) – 2:14:04 (Chicago 2019)

Angela Tanui (Kenya) – 2:17:57 (Amsterdam 2021)

Ashete Bekere (Ethiopia) – 2:18:18 (London 2021)

Hiwot Gebrekidan (Ethiopia) – 2:19:35 (Milan 2021)

Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) – 2:20:09 (Berlin 2021)

Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) – 2:20:29 (Nagoya 2020)

Sara Hall (U.S.A.) – 2:20:32 (Marathon Project 2020)

Helen Bekele (Ethiopia) – 2:21:01 (Tokyo 2019)

Natsuki Omori (Daihatsu) – 2:28:38 (Nagoya 2021)

Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto) – 2:28:51 (Osaka Int’l 2020)

Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku) – 2:30:58 (Nagoya 2009)

Miharu Shimokado (SID Group) – 2:32:48 (Osaka Int’l 2020)

Yui Okada (Otsuka Seiyaku) – 2:32:00 (Nagoya 2020)

Hitomi Mizuguchi (Uniqlo) – 2:32:33 (Osaka Int’l 2020)

Mai Fujisawa (Hokkaido Excel AC) – 2:35:52 (Kanazawa 2021)

Tomomi Sawahata (Sawahatters) – 2:36:45 (Osaka Int’l 2022)

Debut / Do-Over

Kaori Morita (Panasonic) – 1:10:28 (Nat’l Corp. Half 2021)

Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu) – 31:39.86 (Nat’l Championships 2020).

Can Brigid Kosgei Return to the Top?

From the fall of 2018 through the fall of 2020 — four marathon cycles — Brigid Kosgei was the best marathoner in the world. By the end of that stretch, the gap between Kosgei and everyone else was not close. Her 2:14:04 in Chicago in 2019 was 81 seconds faster than Paula Radcliffe‘s previous world record and almost three minutes faster than any active marathoner had ever run. In her next race, 2020 London, she ran 2:18:58 in miserable conditions on a day when none of the rest of the world’s best marathoners could crack 2:22. She was in her own marathon galaxy.

Last year, however, Kosgei came back to Earth. That’s usually what happens when someone becomes World #1 in the fickle event that is the marathon (well, unless your name is Eliud Kipchoge). Kosgei was far from ordinary in 2021 — she still claimed second at the Olympics and fourth in London (in 2:18:40) just eight weeks later — but she was not the all-conquering giant of the previous three years. By the end of last year, the discussion about the world’s greatest female marathoner featured two women, and Kosgei wasn’t among them (right now it’s Olympic/NYC champ Peres Jepchirchir or London champ Joyciline Jepkosgei, who will race each other next month in Boston).

A win in Tokyo would nudge Kosgei back into that conversation, and she will start as the favorite on Sunday. Remember, after that dominant stretch from 2018-20, talk was starting to heat up that Kosgei could be the best marathoner the world has ever seen. That’s the trajectory she was on, and she only just turned 28 years old. If she can return to that sort of form, she’ll be your champion in Tokyo.

The Other Women Who Could Win

The top challenger to Kosgei in Tokyo is Angel Tanui, who emerged from relative obscurity to become one of the world’s top marathoners in 2021. Tanui, now 29, began last year as a serviceable road runner with pbs of 31:51/67:16/2:25:18 but wound up winning marathons in Dhaka (Bangladesh), Tuscany, and Amsterdam and finish as LetsRun’s third-ranked marathoner in the world. Tanui was only in Amsterdam because visa issues had prevented her from running Boston the previous week, but it certainly didn’t affect her race as she ran 2:17:57 to smash the course record. 2:17 doesn’t mean what it used to — these days, it’s barely fast enough to rank in the top 10 all-time — but it’s still plenty quick and signals Tanui as a major player.

Another woman to watch on Sunday is Ethiopia’s Ashete Bekere. She was only 7th in her last visit to Tokyo in 2016, but since then she’s won big-time races in Valencia (2018), Rotterdam (2019), and Berlin (2019). In her last marathon, she ran a pb of 2:18:18 to finish third in London, defeating Kosgei in the process (though Kosgei was just eight weeks removed from the Olympics). Clearly, Bekere has what it takes to win a major.

The other two notables in the field outside of Sara Hall — we’ll get to her in a minute — are the women who went 1-2 in Berlin last fall. Berlin was one of the weaker majors in 2021, but it was hard not to be impressed by Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase, who won the race convincingly in her debut in 2:20:09. Gebreslase is coached by the famed Haji Adilo, and he told Women’s Running he’s been impressed by what he’s seen recently:

“[Gebreslase] has even made big advancements in her training since Berlin,” Adilo says. “She set a personal best in the half marathon in December [1:05:36 in Bahrain], and if the weather and conditions are good in Tokyo, she could do something very special there.”

The runner-up behind Gebreslase in Berlin, Hiwot Gebrekidan, also had a good year in 2021 as she ran a pb of 2:19:35 to win Milan in May. But against this Tokyo field, 2:19 may not be good enough to challenge for the win.

Sara Hall Chases a Fast Time

Sara Hall running Tokyo is something we don’t get often: one of America’s top marathoners racing against the best in the world in a fast international marathon. Last month, Molly Seidel told Track & Field News that American pros “are gonna get our asses handed to us nine times outta ten, if the course is fast.”

posted Friday March 4th
by Jonathan Gault