Benson Kipruto wins Tokyo Marathon as Eliud Kipchoge finishes tenth

Shocks within the Japanese occasion with Sutume Asefa Kebede successful girls’s race as Sifan Hassan is fourth

Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan went into the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday (March 3) because the big-name favourites to win, however they had been each humbled as Benson Kipruto and Sutume Asefa Kebede emerged winners.

Kipchoge was solely tenth and Hassan fourth as they each endured a troublesome day on the roads of Japan.

Kipruto stormed to a course file of two:02:16 with Kipchoge, 39, ending effectively adrift in 2:06:50. “That’s how it’s. Not every single day is Christmas Day,” he mentioned.

Kipchoge, who held the course file with 2:02:40 beforehand, started to wrestle from 20km onwards. By half-way, which the leaders reached in 60:20, Kipchoge was already dropped.

The massive query now, after all, is whether or not the Kenyan athletics federation will nonetheless choose him to defend his Olympic title in Paris.

Kenyans swept the lads’s podium, although, with Timothy Kiplagat runner-up in 2:02:55 and Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich third in 2:04:18.

“I don’t know what occurred to Kipchoge and I haven’t met him up till now,” Kipruto mentioned of Kipchoge’s stunning collapse. “I’m so completely happy for the course file as we speak. It was quick sufficient for a file and I’m completely happy about as we speak.”

Kipchoge mentioned: “I used to be match sufficient however one thing occurred in the midst of the race. I believe it’s early to say now (about Paris). I can return, chill out and begin coaching.”

Sutume Asefa Kebede (Getty)

Kebede additionally ran a course file with 2:15:55 as Hassan clocked 2:18:05 because the Dutch athlete misplaced her unbeaten file within the marathon after victories final 12 months in London and Chicago.

Rosemary Wanjiru was runner-up within the girls’s race in 2:16:14 with Amane Beriso Shankule third in 2:16:14 as American Betsy Saina ran 2:19:17 in fifth.

“I’m so completely happy, I don’t actually have phrases for it,” mentioned Kebede. “It’s my first victory and I don’t have the phrases to specific how completely happy I’m about that.”