Tokyo Marathon 2023
The granddaddy of road marathons in Japan, and one of the six World Marathon Majors is finally back on track! For those at home who haven’t been following along with this race through the ups and downs of the pandemic, let’s quickly recap.
The annual early-spring race, which has been operating in its current form since 2007, just barely took place in 2020 with a limited field of 300 elite runners. A far cry from the typical cap of approximately 35,000 runners.
As the pandemic raged on in 2021, the race was rescheduled for the first time ever from the spring to the fall on Sunday, October 17, 2021. Unfortunately with a state of emergency a regular occurrence in the nation’s capital in those autumn months, the event was postponed yet again.
This time, the 2021 Tokyo Marathon was rescheduled to March 2022 – back to its usual early-spring timeframe – while keeping the 2021 name attached. The 2022 Tokyo Marathon in itself was cancelled; thus, preventing the occurrence (and confusion) of two Tokyo Marathons in the same year.
Such creative liberties were similar to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which kept the 2020 namesake despite postponement to the following year. When major events are planned years in advance and goods have already been produced in the millions, unconventional measures are implemented to save billions.
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