(Sports) Ethiopian athletes sweep Tokyo marathon titles
Xinhua, February 22, 2015 Adjust font size:
Ethiopia's Endeshaw Negesse defeated World Olympic Champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda to win the 2015 Tokyo marathon on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Negesse crossed the finish line with a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes. Kiprotich and race record-holder Dickson Chumba of Kenya ranked second and third place respectively.
On women's side, Birhane Dibaba, also from Ethiopia, won the title with 2:23:14.
More than 36,000 people participated in the annual event, including some 500 from China.
The Tokyo marathon is one of the World Marathon Majors comprising international major city marathons. It attracts about 1. 6 million spectators along the route, which includes Tokyo sightseeing spots.
This year's Tokyo marathon is held under an unprecedented level of security to guard against terrorist threats, following the recent hostage crisis which led two Japanese people dead. Endi