With some late hour withdrawals, Ethiopians Yemane Tsegay and Hailu Mekonnen will be the men to watch at Sunday’s (27) Tokyo Marathon, one of the three IAAF Gold Label Road Races in Japan.
For Japanese men, Sunday’s contest is one of the qualifying races for the upcoming World Championships in Daegu, and thus the race to be the first Japanese will be fierce. It should be noted however that the race is not a Daegu qualifier for Japanese women.
Knee injury sidelines Gebrselassie
The race originally featured current World record holder Haile Gebrselassie. It was hoped that Gebrselassie would dramatically improve the the 2:07:23 course record which is more than two minutes slower than the course record (2:05:18) of another Gold Label race in Japan, the Fukuoka Marathon. Unfortunately, Gebrselassie was forced to pull out of the race on Thursday after sustaining a knee injury after a fall and hitting a rock. His withdrawal left the race wide open, perhaps now making it more intriguing as it’s left totally unpredictable.
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