Kenenisa Bekele to Return to the Roads for 2019 Tokyo Marathon

By Adam Kopet

Kenenisa Bekele stands as the third-fastest marathoner of all-time from his 2016 Berlin Marathon win. Since then, the world record holder at 5,000 and 10,000 meters has struggled to show similar form.

Now, according to the IAAF, Bekele will race the Tokyo Marathon in March. This will be Bekele's first race in Japan since he won the 10,000 at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Osaka.

After running 2:03:03 in Berlin in 2016, Bekele has only finished two marathons, the 2017 and 2018 London Marathons. He was second in 2017, finishing in 2:05:57, and sixth in 2018 with a time of 2:08:53. In those two years, he failed to finish three marathons, including the 2017 Dubai Marathon, the 2017 Berlin Marathon and the 2018 Amsterdam Marathon.

Bekele is only one of five men in the Tokyo Marathon field to have run under 2:05. Kenya's Dickson Chumba is the defending champion and has a personal best of 2:04:32. Chumba also won in 2014 and finished third in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Ethiopia's Birhanu Legesse and Seifu Tura and Bahrain's El Hassan El Abbassi have also run under the 2:05 mark in their careers.

Local fans will be watching Nike Oregon Project runner Suguru Osako. He broke the Japanese record when he finished third at the 2018 Chicago Marathon, running 2:05:50.