Clash of legends as Kipchoge, Kamworor line up for Tokyo Marathon
Reading Time: 3min | Sat. 02.03.24. | 11:43
Other athletes from Kenya invited to compete in the Tokyo Marathon are Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich, Timothy Kiplagat, and Benson Kipruto
Anticipation is reaching the fever pitch as mentee meets mentor in the 2024 Tokyo Marathon slated for March 3 from 3:10 am - 10:10 am East Africa Time (EAT).
Two titans of the sport, Eliud Kipchoge, and Geoffrey Kamworor, are preparing to share the same stage, setting the scene for a showdown that is poised to go down in history as one of the greatest of all time.
Kamworor who has openly noted that Kipchoge is his friend and mentor will be bouncing back from a series of injuries that have ruled him out of major competitions.
A pelvic stress injury saw him pull out of the 2023 New York City Marathon that was slated for November 5, 2023.
That was a bitter moment for him as he was in search of a third title in the prestigious race. He won the New York City Marathon in 2017 and 2019.
This year however, the three-time World Cross Country champion seems to have shaken off the injury and will be looking to start his year on a high.
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The 31-year-old was recently included in the tentative Team Kenya for the Paris 2024 Olympics, and he will be using this marathon as a springboard ahead of the same.
He will line up against his mentor, friend, and training mate Kipchoge. They both train at the Global Sports Communication camp in Kaptagat and are members of the NN Running Team.
Kipchoge is back in the Japanese City keen to assert his dominance in the marathon. He last won an Olympic gold medal on the streets of Sapporo at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
He is also fresh from a BMW Berlin Marathon win in September 2023 where he ran in 2:04:42. He will be looking to set a new course record.
Speaking during the Tokyo Marathon press release, Kipchoge noted that he expects stiff competition from Japanese runners as athletics is a popular sport with a long-standing tradition in the country.
The six Japanese set to compete in the race are Kengo Suzuki, Ichitaka Tamashita, Kenya Sonota, Kyohei Hosoya, Kazuya Nishiyama, and Yohei Ikeda.
“Tokyo is a different race. The culture of Japanese people is different. The Japanese people are into running. Marathons and road races are in Japanese blood. This is the place you can see the spirit of running and how running is,” he said.
This will be Kipchoge’s 22nd marathon, with 18 wins so far including 11 Major Marathons.
He has twice broken the world record, both times in Berlin, and in 2019 became the first runner in history to break the two-hour barrier as part of the INEOS 1:59 project in Vienna, running 1:59:40.
Other athletes from Kenya invited to compete in the Tokyo Marathon are Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich, Timothy Kiplagat, and Benson Kipruto.
