Wanjiru ready to silence rivals as she returns to Tokyo tomorrow

Rosemary Wanjiru will be making another grand return to the streets of Tokyo, Japan for another scintillating marathon tomorrow.

Wanjiru, the 2023 Tokyo Marathon champion, and who placed second last year, is taking to the Japanese capital a gigantic confidence after what she describes as adequate training at her base in Iten.

The battle for honours aside, Wanjiru, the 2022 Berlin Marathon runner-up returns to a country where her athletics career was birthed.

As she gets set to reclaim her 2023 title, Wanjiru said yesterday from Tokyo that she only hoped to run a good race in the first World Marathon Major of 2025.

“When I start the race on Sunday, my prayer will be one; to run a good race and finish strong,” Wanjiru who landed in Tokyo earlier in the week said.

The Iten-based long distance star said she draws her confidence for the Sunday race from months of training.

“I am feeling great and ready for the race. My preparations were pretty good and that give me the confidence to do my best in this year’s race,” Wanjiru told Standard Sports from Tokyo.

Last year, Ethiopian Sutume Asefa Kebede took the women’s crown while Benson Kipruto cruised to a stunning victory in the men’s marathon.

Wanjiru says she was also well prepared to compete once again with the defending champion in the 42km race that observers say will be catfight.

“I got a strong support from my coaches, family and management and I thank everyone for making the preparations possible,” the 2015 African Games 5000m silver medallist said.

With her second place in the 2024 Tokyo Marathon, Wanjiru defeated big names among them Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who finished fourth in the contest.

At the 2024 edition, the podium seemed decided at 30km, a mark where Wanjiru, Kebede and Amane Beriso crossed in 1:36:43.

Beriso was later dropped, and Kebede managed to shake off Wanjiru and went for the victory over the closing kilometres.

While a teenager, Wanjiru relocated to Japan where her athletics career was nurtured before she returned to Kenya to make waves.

“Japan is my second home and competing at the Tokyo Marathon makes me feel great. I was here that my athletics journey started and it makes feel good whenever I return,” she added.

Wanjiru,30, participated in numerous races in the Asian country when she trained there.

For instance, she was runner-up in the 3000m at the 2012 National Sports Festival of Japan, and won the national high schools championship over the same distance.

She added another crown the following year when she won the Chiba International Cross Country.

By 2014 Wanjiru was already making breakthrough in Japanese Corporate races for Team Starts.

In her first year of corporate competition, Wanjiru emerged East Japan champion over 1500m and 3000m. She achieved victory at the 2015 Sanyo Women’s 10km and the 5000m at the Japan Corporate Track and Field Championships, Oda Memorial and Nobeoka Golden Games.

Last year, despite emerging second in Tokyo and rising to the sixth place in the world all-time list, Wanjiru could not make it to Paris Olympics.

She was named in the initial Olympics squad but could not make the finsl list when the team was whittled down.