The World Athletics Championships Tokyo opened on the 13th of this month. Over the long holiday weekend, the men’s and women’s marathons wound through central Tokyo, and crowds packed in front of the Palaceside Building cheered the runners on.
This is Japan’s third time hosting the championships, after Tokyo in 1991 and Osaka in 2007. It is the first large-scale international sports event in the capital since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, held in 2021.
In the women’s marathon on the 14th, first-time competitor Kana Kobayashi, 24, of Otsuka Pharmaceutical, finished seventh in 2 hours 28 minutes 50 seconds—the best among the Japanese field. It was Japan’s first top-eight finish in three championships, since Doha in 2019. Kobayashi drew attention for an unusual résumé: at Waseda University she belonged to a running circle called the Honolulu Marathon Finishers Club.