Two rising stars will spearhead the dsm-firmenich Running Team’s Abbott World Marathon Majors debut at the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday 1 March.
In the men’s race, Daniel Mateiko will seek to build on his promising start as a marathon runner with a prominent showing on the streets of the Japanese capital. Boasting a strong pedigree on the track the Paris 2024 Olympic 10,000m finalist has also proved a highly accomplished performer over the half-marathon distance.
A former winner of the both the Antrim Coast Half Marathon and Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon, the Kenyan is a regular sub-59-minute performer with a personal best of 58:17.
In his two completed marathons to date, he recorded an impressive 2:04:24 for third in the 2024 Maratón Valencia Trinidad Alfonso Zurich Valencia Marathon and followed that up with a ninth-place finish at the 2025 Boston Marathon. Mateiko, 27, will seek to build on the encouragement of those performances in Tokyo.
Highly promising Mekides Shimeles leads the women’s challenge for the dsm-firmenich Team on Sunday aiming to claim a second successive marathon podium.
The 20-year-old Ethiopian only made her international debut in 2024, highlighted by a fourth-place finish in the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon (1:12:29).
Last year Shimeles made a huge improvement, winning the NN CPC Loop Den Haag Half Marathon in a personal best of 1:08:17, claiming a national 10,000m silver medal on the track before clocking an outstanding 2:19:56 to place third on her marathon debut in the TCS Amsterdam Marathon.
Her debut appearance in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series will be eagerly anticipated.
Tokyo Marathon Details
Contested annually since 2007, the Tokyo Marathon is traditionally the opening stop on the annual seven-race Abbott World Marathon Majors series. The largely flat, fast course starts at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and passes through key areas like Shinjuku, Asakusa, Ginza, and the Imperial Palace before finishing near Tokyo Station/Gyoko-dori Avenue. The race will start at 9.10am local time on Sunday 1 March.
Broadcast Details
In Japan the race will be broadcast by the Nippon Television Network Corporation. Fore more details visit here.
AloJapan.com