Marathoners to Watch (Men's & Women's Top Contenders)
After the coronavirus pandemic cancelled or delayed the majority of the 2020 season, the Tokyo Olympics have been rescheduled for 2021. Despite the circumstances, the elite athletes of the world found ways to compete through the chaos. This week, we will cover the longest running race at the Olympics, the marathon. In 2020, the marathon had some solid results, and has had new world records in the past few years. With all of the new obstacles added for these athletes, they have shown that they can persevere. Here are the athletes to watch for the Tokyo 2021 marathon.
Men
On the men’s side, it is safe to say that Kenya and Ethiopia have dominated the event. The last time an athlete from any other country in the world had a world #1 time was in 2002 when Khalid Khannouchi from the United States ran 2:05:38. In fact, the last time any athlete from another country was even in the top 5 was in 2008. In 2020, Evans Chebet from Kenya led the world with a time of 2:03:00 after winning the Valencia Marathon, where all of the top five times came from. With the marathon getting faster and faster, here is who to watch in the 2021 Olympics.
Eliud Kipchoge is the frontrunner and favorite to take the gold in Tokyo. He is the world record holder with a legal time of 2:01:39 and is the only athlete in history to run the distance under 2 hours on an illegal course. He is also the reigning Olympic Champion from Rio 2016. In 2020, Kipchoge only raced once and it was not his best performance. He finished with a time of 2:08:49 for an 8th place finish. While most people would be thrilled with an 8th place finish among the most elite athletes in the world, Kipchoge is not used to losing. He has only lost one race since 2015 in a half marathon. You have to go back to 2013 to find his last marathon loss when he finished 2nd. Kipchoge is used to winning, and the world should expect him to come back hungry in 2021 to continue his reign as Olympic champion
Kenenisa Bekele is the next athlete to watch on this list. His lifetime best is only 2 seconds slower than Kipchoge’s which he set a year after his world record performance on the same course. Bekele also has Olympic experience, but not in the marathon. In 2004, Bekele won the 10,000m and finished 2nd in the 5,000m. 2008 was a different story when Bekele won both events in convincing fashion. However, 2012 was the end of his Olympic reign when he finished 4th in the 10,000m, failing to get a medal. 2016 was also a rough year after Bekele did not finish in the Ethiopian Olympic Trials, missing the games all together. After this performance, Bekele began to focus on the longer events and began running the marathon. He has not won many races, but had a great performance in 2019 with his all-time #2 race. Bekele will look to make his fourth Olympic appearance over five games in 2021 and add another medal to his career.
Birhanu Legese is the final male athlete on our list. Legese has a lifetime best of 2:01:48 in the marathon which also came at the Berlin Marathon, similar to Bekele and Kipchoge. Legese does not have many international accolades to his name despite his incredibly fast times. In 2016, similar to Bekele he failed to finish the Ethiopian 10,000m Trials race and has yet to qualify for an Olympic Games. In 2020, Legese raced in two marathons. He won the Tokyo Marathon and finished 3rd at the Valencia event in December. Legese has to be hungry for his first major international win and has the times to do so. He only sits behind Kipchoge by nine seconds and with the right day, he may be able to win the gold and shock the world.
Women
Similar to the men’s side, Ethiopia and Kenya have dominated the women’s marathon as well. 2009 was the last year an athlete from any other country in the world led the world. In 2020, Peres Jepchirchir led the world with an all-time #5 performance of 2:17:16. Since the Rio 2016 games, there are nine new top 10 all-time performances, so there certainly is a lot of competition for the gold this year.
Brigid Kosgei is the front runner heading into the Tokyo games. Kosgei holds the world record by a comfortable margin with a lifetime best of 2:14:04, a full 81 seconds ahead of the 2nd all-time performance. This was run back in 2019 in Chicago in a race that was run entirely by herself. She won the race by almost seven minutes and led the world by over three minutes that year. The only question surrounding her is if she can do it again. Her best performance in the event other than this one race was a 2:18:20 run earlier that season. If she can put it together again for a perfect race, she has the talent to run away from the competition.
Peres Jepchirchir is next on our list. Jepchirchir ran her lifetime best in 2020 and is by far her best performance of her career, by over six minutes. Jepchirchir has not competed in any major international championships for the marathon yet, but has won the world half marathon championships twice, in 2016 and 2020. She will look to continue on her success in 2020 to build momentum towards the Tokyo games.
Ruth Chepngetich is last on our list but should not be taken lightly. She has a lifetime personal best of 2:17:08 set in 2019 and also won the World Marathon Championships that same year in Doha. This is her only international championship win, and will likely bring some criticism since the winning time was 2:32:43, a time that would not qualify for some Olympic Trial races. The Doha championships for the marathon were very questionable at best since the race began at 11:59pm due to the extreme heat and conditions. This led to many athletes dropping out and the winning times were not very fast. However, Chepngetich held strong and will look to continue to have this mentally tough mindset in 2021.
What do you think of our list? Leave a comment on who you think will win the men and women’s marathon at Tokyo 2021!