【Report】 Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon 2022 Elite Race

It was cloudy with a temperature of 24.1 Celsius and humidity at 66.8% when the half marathon started at 8:05 am. While there was a slight breeze, the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon 2022 got off to a start under relatively good weather conditions.

In the elite men’s field, Vincent Kipkemoi (Kenya), who belonged to a Japanese corporate sports team until 2020, finished with a time of 1:00:10. He became the winner of the commemorative first Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon and shared his thoughts with a smile. “I ran a very good race. I was able to show the results of my training.”

There were more than 20 athletes in the leading pack that passed the 5km mark in 14:24. From the 5km mark, Alexander Mutiso (Kenya, ND Software), who has the fastest personal best among the contenders with a time of 57:59, pulled ahead, but the pack caught up past the 6km mark. The pace picked up, and the only Japanese runner remaining in the pack was Kenta Murayama (Asahi KASEI).
At the 10km mark, 28:42 from the start, the leading group was made up of 12 athletes. Murayama, who had been doing well, fell behind from the pack past the 13km mark. Bernard Kimeli (Fujitsu) and Kipkemoi were leading the pack of 6 athletes when they passed the 15km mark in 42:54. By the 18km mark, Kimeli fell behind, and it became a match between Kipkemoi and Mutiso. In the end, Kipkemoi took the lead in the ascending hill past 19km, maintaining his lead until the end.

Kipkemoi’s winning time of 1:00:10 was 19 seconds faster than second place finisher Mutiso. While he missed his goal time of sub-60:00, it was a good race considering the undulations.
At the post-race press conference, Kipkemoi revealed the reason for his good performance. “I have been training a little bit harder. I have increased my speed training.”
After leaving the Japanese corporate team, he has been training in Iten, Kenya. He will be running the 10km road race to be held in Spain in January next year. After that, he has plans to enter a full marathon commenting, “I plan to make the shift to marathon.”

The battle for the top among the Japanese athletes involved three runners in the latter part of the race - Murayama, Daisuke Uekado (Otsuka Pharmaceutical) and Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota). Murayama picked up speed in the last 200m after entering the Japan National Stadium, and finished in the lead with a time of 1:02:14. At the press conference, he showed his disappointment commenting, “I have been training quite well, and my condition was good enough to better my personal best (1:00:50), so my time wasn’t very good.” However, considering that he plans to run a marathon in December and his main goal for this event was “to check on my condition”, he evaluated his performance saying, “it was a good step.”
The performance of both the winner and the top Japanese finisher in future marathons will be of interest.

In the women’s field, Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (Kenya, USE) passed the 5km mark in 15:59, with a lead of nearly 100m from the 3 international runners in the second group. Omare passed the 10km mark in 32:20, and while Caroline Nyaga (Kenya) broke away from the second group, running solo, the 18-second gap with Omare remained.
However, at the 15km mark, Nyaga picked up her pace by 16 seconds, running the 5km between 10km and 15km in 16:05. She overtook Omare and maintained the lead to the finish line. Nyaga’s time of 1:08:23 is 1:37 faster than her personal best.
At the press conference, she commented with a smile. “I am very happy to have won at my second half marathon, and finish with my personal best. I thought it might be a hard race when my rival took the lead, but I was able to pick up the pace from the 10km mark.”
Nyaga placed third in the 5,000m and won the 10,000m at this year’s African Athletics Championships, but still has not met the qualifying standard for next year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest. She shared her commitment to making the Kenyan team for the World Athletics Championship. “I will do my best to train and meet the qualifying standard.”

Among the Japanese athletes, Natsuki Omori (DAIHATSU) was running solo in fifth position at the beginning of the race, but Haruka Yamaguchi (AC・KITA) overtook Omori and then Beatrice Cheburet (Kenya) just before the 10km mark, putting some distance between herself and the two runners.
Around the 12km mark, Yamaguchi caught up with Betsy Saina (USA) who was running in third place, but Saina stuck close to Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi “picked up speed in the ascending hill in the last 3km”, leaving Saina behind, and finished in third place with a time of 1:10:35, the fastest among the Japanese women.
At the press conference, she smiled as she commented, “I looked at my time at the 10km mark and switched from aiming for a personal best to placing third, and I’m glad that I was able to win the competition (with Saina).”
Although she wasn’t able to better her personal record of 1:09:50, she felt her performance would carry her over to future marathons.
“I usually start in the back rather than the leading pack, but I hope to be able to run in the leading group at the next marathon.”
Yamaguchi, who also ran as a guide runner for a blind runner at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, also shared the following.
“I was very happy to be able to run together, and I think it was a very good environment for the para-athletes to run. I hope the event continues in this type of format, and more events like this are held where everyone can run together.”
She spoke on behalf of the many athletes who participated in the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon.