2024 Tokyo Marathon: Benson Kipruto vs Eliud Kipchoge - race breakdown and splits analysis
Kenya’s Kipruto stormed to victory in the first Marathon Major of the year in Japan’s capital, breaking the course record set by his compatriot Kipchoge in 2022. Olympics.com looks at how the pair's stats stacked up side by side.
Boxing
“Not every day is Christmas,” said Eliud Kipchoge as he reflected on the disappointment of a 10th-place finish at the 2024 Tokyo Marathon on Sunday 3 March. However, for fellow Kenyan Benson Kipruto, who won the race in a new course record 2:02.16, this was arguably the greatest late holiday gift of his career to date.
While Kipchoge is a legend in the sport of athletics, with two Olympic gold medals and 10 Marathon Major victories, Kipruto is one of several Kenyans putting pressure on the marathon great with their rapid performances over the 42.195km distance.
Six of the top 10 finishers in the Tokyo Marathon men’s race are from Kenya, with five finishing above Kipchoge who ended the race in a time of 2:06:50. It’s fair to say, these are uncharted waters for an athlete so used to dominating whenever he competes.
The Kenyan selectors have not yet chosen their team for Paris 2024 and while the name Kipchoge carries so much weight it would be a surprise if he does not make it to the Olympic starting line, but performances like the one witnessed on Sunday mean there are no guarantees in a sport that is notoriously difficult to find top-level consistency in.
Benson Kipruto vs Eliud Kipchoge - how the 2024 Tokyo Marathon panned out
The 2024 Tokyo Marathon can almost be said to have been a race of two halves.
Kipruto and Kipchoge both went out with the leading group at a blistering pace, sharing split times of 14:16, 14:14 and 14:22 over the first 15km in a world record pace.
However, by kilometre 20 a small gap had opened up between the two, with Kipchoge dropping 5 seconds off the pace. Still, by the time they both passed the half-marathon mark, the gap of 14 seconds would have been worrying but not race-ending for Kipchoge.
It was in the second half of the race that Kipruto continued to shine while the Olympic champion faded.
By the 25th kilometre the gap between the two was one minute and 21 seconds as Kipchoge struggled to keep up with the race leaders. At the time, Kipruto’s split was remarkably consistent with the first half of the race, as he posted a time of 14:25 between kilometres 20 and 25. For his part, Kipchoge had begun to slip backwards fast, with splits of 15:31, 15:49, 15:40 and 15:47 between kilometre 20 and 40.
Kipruto himself did begin to slow from the initial pace that would have brought him close to the world record, however a slowest split of 14:48 over the last 20 kilometres was still over a minute faster than Kipchoge’s slowest of 15:49.
The final gap between the two at the race's end was over four-and-a-half minutes as Kipruto claimed his third career Marathon Major win.
Benson Kipruto vs Eliud Kipchoge - splits and times
Why did Kipchoge underperform in Tokyo?
While Kipchoge made no concrete excuses for not reaching the heights he is used to at the 2024 Tokyo Marathon, he did cryptically admit that “something happened in the middle of the race.”
Whether that was an injury or the heat of a balmy day in Japan hampering his performance is just speculation. As would be the idea that age is finally beginning to catch up with the reigning Olympic champion after his legendary 11-year career running marathons.
However, while Kipchoge admitted it is “too early” to assess his chances of success at Paris 2024, this isn’t the first time he has bounced back from disappointment to land on the winner’s step of the podium.
He finished eighth in the 2020 London Marathon and sixth in the Boston Marathon in 2023, returning from that first loss to set a world record in Berlin in 2022 and triumphing in Berlin again late last year following his loss in Boston.
Kipruto's performance will have caught the eyes of the Kenyan selectors who have a rich pool of talent to choose from. He remains hopeful that he will be one of the three names his National Olympic Committee calls up for the Olympic marathon in August this year.
“I think I’m ready for Paris,’ he said. “But that relies on my country for selection.”
- As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
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