Tadese Takele And Sutume Asefa Kebede Win The 2025 Tokyo Marathon!

It was double success for Ethiopia in the 2025 Tokyo Marathon with Tadese Takele and Sutume Asefa Kebede winning the first of this year’s seven Marathon Majors. 

In the men’s race, Takele won in 2:03:23 with Ethiopia’s Deresa Galeta finishing second (2:03:51) and Kenya’s Vincent Kipkemboi Ngetich (2:04:00) in third,  a repeat from his place in 2024’s race. 

Kebede made it back-to-back wins in Tokyo as the 2024 champion finished in 2:16:31. Kenya’s Winfrida Moraa Moseti (2:16:56) was second and Ethiopia’s Hawi Feysa (2:17:00) finished third. 

On a warm day in Tokyo, where temperatures rose to 20C, times were slower than expected. 

Lead pacers set out at 2:01 and 2:12 respectively in the men’s and women’s races, but it became clear that conditions were set for racing and not records. 

Several men ran through halfway in 1:01:18 and as the race progressed, Takele, Galeta and Ngetich pressed ahead together through 23 miles, before Takele made a decisive move to pull ahead, and the others couldn’t keep up. It was Takele’s first marathon win and his time was a one-second personal best, meaning the 22-year-old lowered his own record for the fastest U23 marathon.

Last year’s winner Benson Kipruto finished sixth (2:05:46), and Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, the Olympic 10,000m champion and world record holder over the distance, finished ninth in 2:05:59 in his second marathon. Places four through 10 finished within 25 seconds of each other in the chase pack. 

Kebede set out at a fast pace, and built up a large lead through the first half of the race, which she passed in 1:06:20, and was two minutes ahead of second at 25km. As the day got warmer, she couldn’t maintain the aggressive pace and slowed, but managed to hold onto the win as the others closed in. 

Former world record holder Paula Radcliffe ran her first marathon since retiring in 2015, and finished in 2:57:26. She’s running the Boston Marathon in six weeks where she will collect her Six Star medal. 

MEN’S TOP 10

1. Tadese Takele (ETH): 2:03:23
2. Deresa Geleta (ETH): 2:03:51
3. Vincent Kipkemoi (KEN): 2:04:00
4. Titus Kipruto (KEN): 2:05:34
5. Asefa Uma (ETH): 2:05:46
6. Benson Kipruto (KEN): 2:05:46
7. Geoffrey Toroitich (KEN): 2:05:46
8. Suldan Hassan (SWE): 2:05:57
9. Joshua Cheptegei (UGA): 2:05:59
10. Tsubasa Ichiyama (JPN): 2:06:00

WOMEN’S TOP 10

1. Sutume Asefa Kebede (ETH): 2:16:31
2. Winfridah Moraa Moseti (KEN): 2:16:56
3. Hawi Feysa (ETH): 2:17:00
4. Magdalyne Masai (KEN): 2:19:28
5. Rosemary Wanjiru (KEN): 2:19:57
6. Desi Mokonin (BRN): 2:20:07
7. Gotytom Gebreslase (ETH): 2:20:25
8. Degitu Azimeraw (ETH): 2:20:26
9. Zhang Deshun (CHN): 2:20:53
10. Jessica Stenson (AUS): 2:22:56

As the streets of Tokyo clear and over 37,000 runners celebrate finishing the first Marathon Major of 2025, our attention now turns to the other two spring marathons. The Boston Marathon takes place on Monday 21 April followed six days later by the London Marathon on Sunday 27 April. 

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Want to see more? Here’s Sarah running the 2024 London Marathon. 

Photo by HIRO KOMAE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images