Alexander Mutiso lays London Marathon gauntlet with course record in Japan

Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso made quite the statement ahead of his London marathon title defense this year with a course record-winning time at the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon on Sunday.

The 28-year-old, who was looking to avenge his close defeat to Richard Etir at the Japanese race last year, broke away at the last kilometre to stride home in an impressive time of 59:16.

The course record time was just one second better than his winning time at the Elite Label status half marathon in 2023.

The 77th edition of the race took place after 15 hours of heavy rain, and Mutiso, joined by the leading pack of Emmanuel Maru, James Mutuku, Tomoki Ota, Kotaro Shinohara and Kento Baba hit the 5-kilometer mark in 14:05, before reaching 10 km in 28:02.

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A 56:26 split at 20km dropped a sizable number of contenders, with the race boiling down to Mutiso and Maru.

Mutiso however broke away to leave Maru in his wake, the latter - also from Kenya - finishing second in 59:19.

Ota rounded off the podium places in third, timing 59:27 to become the first Japanese man to break the hour barrier in the half marathon, a full 33 seconds under the old record.

Elsewhere in the women’s race, Kenya’s Dolphine Nyaboke Omare defended the title she won last year by setting a new course record of 1:06:05.

In her attempt to better the previous time of 1:07:02, Nyaboke, this time with a male pacer, set out at an ambitious 15:13 for the first 5 km.

Every split after that was progressively slower, but Omare still easily beat last year’s time.

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Great Britain’s Calli Hauger-Thacker was second clocking 1:06:58, while Australia’s Isobel Batt-Doyle set a national record of 1:07:17 in third position.

The other Kenyan in the race - Pauline Kaveke Kamulu - finished fourth in a time of 1:07:33.