Catherine Debrunner broke the course record to win her debut Tokyo Marathon in style.
It was the dream start to the defense of her AbbottWMM Series title as she romped to victory in 1:35:56 to snatch the course mark from her fellow Swiss racer Manuela Schär.
Susannah Scaroni took second place with 1:36:28, also inside the old record, while China’s Zhaoqian Zhou was third in 1:37:46, just edging Schär off the podium by five seconds.
For Debrunner, it sets her 2025 up perfectly as she goes in search of a third series title without the added workload of a Paralympic program to cram into her schedule.
The 29-year-old is enjoying the most successful period of her career with her marathon success allied to a golden summer in Paris last year that saw her carry off four gold medals.
There was home town joy in the men’s race as Tomoki Suzuki kept hold of the title he claimed in 2024.
The Japanese star stopped the clock at 1:19:14, with an astonishing advantage of more than 10 minutes over second-placed Xingchuan Luo of China, with Zhang Ying in third.
Suzuki will have tougher days at the office when the likes of Marcel Hug, Daniel Romanchuk, David Weir and others return to action, with less than 50 days to go until these athletes reconvene to battle it out in Boston.
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