Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar is the leading name in Tokyo Marathon women’s field. A winner of two Olympic 5000m titles, two world 5000m titles and four world indoor 3000m titles, the 34-year-old has spent the past few years – when not injured or pregnant – making a gradual transition to the roads.
She has won three half marathons on US soil and finished second at the 2013 Great North Run in 1:06:09. With track PBs of 8:23.72 for 3000m, 14:12.88 for 5000m and 29:59:20 for 10,000m, athletics fans will be keen to see what Defar manages in her marathon debut.
She will line up against compatriot Ruti Aga, who finished second at the 2017 Berlin Marathon in a PB of 2:20:41 and won the recent Houston Half Marathon in a PB of 1:06:39, and fellow Ethiopian Shure Demise, whose 2:20:59 performance at the 2015 Dubai Marathon is the fastest performance ever by an U20 athlete.
Kenya’s 2015 world silver medalist and 2016 Tokyo champion Helah Kiprop and 2017 Paris Marathon champion Purity Rionoripo are also set to compete.
Ethiopia’s Tesfaye Abera, who ran a PB of 2:04:24 to win the 2016 Dubai Marathon, is the fastest of Kipsang’s opponents in Tokyo. Compatriot and fellow former Dubai winner Tesgaye Mekonnen is also in the field.
“Expect a very exciting race this year,” said race director Ted Hayano. “The assembled field may be good enough to target the world record of 2:02:57 as well as the Japanese record of 2:06:16.”

F.asil’s boss Mentsenot Getu has barely survived being fired and speculation is running wild that Woldya boss Zemariam W/Giorgis will be the next to get the axe.
The Gondor based side sits in the middle of the standings and they have not played well recently, tying Mekele 0-0, and losing to Saint Gorge 2-0 and Sidama Coffee 3-0 this week. Fasil sits 7th in the table with 16 points from 12 matches so little known Mentsenot who took over the hot seat last season replacing sacked Head Coach Zemariam appears to be in jeopardy.
Sources close to the club hinted that the committee’s serene decision stays only until the end of the first round so Mentsenot needs to deliver better results in the remaining three matches.
According to speculation Woldya’s head coach Zemariam is currently available. Fasil spent a lot of money this season, signing seasoned Ethiopian players: Tesfaye Alebachew, Biruk Kalbore ,Dawit Estifanos and Menyahel Teshome plus four foreign players, Zemariam appears oblivious in trying to make a team out of the big names because Woldya is currently down to 12th place with 11 points from eleven matches.
Woldya has two wins, five draws and four loses, adding up to 11 points. They have conceded 10 goals. Which means their defense is bad and their offense has only scored seven times. Some critics suggest the problem may be with the boss since he never played at the higher stage leading big name footballers could be a real problem.

Jimma Aba Jifar’a wandering Ghanaian goalkeeper has returned to camp after a two month absence and Ethiopia Bunna has signed a one year contract with the giant Senegalese striker Baptiste Faye.
Daniel Nana Agyei, who was the gold medalist at the FIFA U-20 World Cup gold and winner of the African Youth Championship, has returned to Jimma after a two month unapproved absence for an alleged court appearance in his home country Ghana. Daniel’s sudden departure was a huge blow for Abajifar as it lost four consecutive matches before rebounding and winning their next two games.
Daniel admitted that he travelled to Holland to claim custody of his baby girl and he expects to make more visits in the coming months. The 1.85m tall FIFA 2009 U-20 World Youth Cup and African Youth Double Gold Medalist will resume his duty between the wood works. The team sits third in the table after an amazing four wins in five matches, so the addition of Daniel could give a huge boost to head coach Gebremedin Haile.
In other news Ethiopia Bunna landed the 1.95m tall Baptiste Faye from Senegal to pair with their newly signed Ugandan striker Boban Bogere. The addition of the 30 year-old Faye who played for ten clubs in ten seasons scoring 136 goals in 183 appearances means Ethiopia Bunna will boast one of the most fearful strike forces in the league. Both strikers are to be available to the club at the start of the second round.

The latest fashion among Ethiopian Premier League clubs is kicking-out foreign footballers. Less than three months in to the season six players including the former Sidama Bunna Nigerian striker Lucky Sunny got marching orders back home for poor performance and alleged indiscipline.
Arbaminch, which is currently in last place, signed three foreign players under sacked Coach Tsegaye K/Mariam for the first time in the club’s history.
However, two of them have now been dismissed even before the end of the first round. The Ghanaian striker Saidu Bance was discharged at the start of the new season for no official reason.
While despite three goals to his name the Nigerian striker who moved from Sidama Coffee during the winter break Lucky Sunny was dismissed for his poor performance and disruptive behavior.
Of the five foreign players signed by Fasil Coach Mentesenot Getu, who is currently under pressure, two of them, Ugandan internationals: Robert Sentengo and Kristophor Amos Obi have been thrown out of the club.
Back after a failed short trial with Saint George three years ago, Sentengo joined Fasil this current season only to serve nine matches on the reserve bench while Amobi just returned home after signing a contract when he had a successful trial period.
Confederation cup participant Wolayta Dicha also kicked-out the Nigerian striker Hillari Ekina who was signed under sacked MesayTeferi. The hero turned zero Mesay who helped the club to its first ever international fixture signed three foreign players. Ethiopia Coffee also handed KrizistomNetambi a strong letter to reimburse his six month salary improve his behavior or face further action. It is hard to understand how all of these teams are able to not follow through with a valid contract. Of course most of the signings are either under the table or disclosed from the public. Nevertheless things may not end well because the players could appeal to Caf saying their contract agreement were not followed through with. The irony is that there is no one accountable for the mess and spending public money in the name of the sport appears to have no end.