Ethiopian Sutume Assefa and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto set respective Japanese all-comers’ records of 2:15:55 and 2:02:16 to win at the Tokyo Marathon – a World Athletics Platinum Label road race.

Both secured convincing victories from strong fields in the Japanese capital. Ethiopian world champion Sutume triumphed ahead of Kenya’s Rosemary Wanjiru and Amane Beriso while the 2022 Chicago Marathon champion, won ahead of Timothy Kiplagat and Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich in a Kenyan top three.

Sutume and Kipruto improved the records of 2:16:02 by Brigid Kosgei and 2:02:40 by Eliud Kipchoge in 2022. 

The women’s race, seven athletes – Sutume, Wanjiru and Amane plus multiple Olympic and world track gold medallist Sifan Hassan, Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, Betsy Saina and Buzunesh Getachew – ran together in a group alongside male runners and reached 15km in 48:38.

Sifan Hassan was towards the back of that pack at 20km – reached first by defending champion Wanjiru in 1:04:45, with Hassan four seconds behind.

Hassan, who won the London and Chicago marathons last year, had let them get away by 28km but she carried on, running solo.

The podium seemed decided at 30km, reached by Wanjiru, Sutume  and Amane in 1:36:43, and after Beriso was dropped, Sutume also managed to shake off Wanjiru and sealed victory over the closing kilometers.

Sutume won in 2:15:55, taking more than two minutes off the PB she set in Seoul in 2022 to move to No.8 on the world all-time list. Wanjiru was second in 2:16:14 and Beriso was third in 2:16:58.

Hassan held on to fourth place, clocking 2:18:05, while Saina was fifth in 2:19:17 and Japan’s Hitomi Niiya sixth in 2:21:50.

Elle St Pierre ran a perfectly judged race to win the women’s 3000m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24, outsprinting Ethiopia’s world indoor 1500m champion and outdoor 10,000m champion Gudaf Tsegay to set a North American and championship record of 8:20.87.

A performance that took almost five seconds off her personal best saw her step up to the top of the podium having won silver in this event two years earlier in Belgrade.

St Pierre (nee Purrier), who gave birth to a son almost exactly a year ago on 4 March 2023, tailgated the lead group of four for most of the race before making her move on the final bend as she came past the leader on the outside and held her form to the line.

St Pierre’s win bucked the trend of this event at the World Indoor Championships, in which nine of the past 10 gold medals had gone to Ethiopia.

Gudaf Tsegaye, the world 5000m record-holder, came within a whisker of the world indoor 3000m record with 8:17.11 in Lievin on 10 February, but here she had to settle for silver in 8:21.13.

Bronze went to Kenya’s steeplechase world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech, who had taken the race off at a brisk early pace. She clocked a national indoor record of 8:22.68, with Australia’s Jess Hull just missing out on a medal as she clocked an Oceanian record of 8:24.39.