Kenya's Ngetich and Mutiso win Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon with course records

Kenya's Agnes Ngetich won the women's race at the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon in Japan on 18 October 2026 in 1:04:23, and her compatriot Alexander Mutiso Munyao won the men's race in 59:51, both in course-record times, Athletics Kenya said. The organisers' results release marks both winners with a new course record.

Ngetich took 3:04 off the women's record of 1:07:27, set by Kenya's Loice Chemnung when she won in 2024. Mutiso took one second off the men's record of 59:52, run by Amos Kurgat, also of Kenya, in 2024.

Kenyan men filled the first four places. Kiprono Sitonik was second in 59:56, James Mutuku third in 1:00:08 and Amos Kiprotich fourth in 1:00:11. In the women's race, Tabitha Njeri Kamau of Kenya was second in 1:08:28 and Japan's Kazuna Kanetomo third in 1:10:17.

“I didn’t think I’d get such a time. It was a hard course, it was hilly and had lots of sharp corners,” Ngetich said, as quoted by Athletics Kenya. Mutiso said: “I feel good for the win today.”

The race is organised by the Tokyo Marathon Foundation. It starts and finishes at MUFG Stadium, the Japan National Stadium, and its course, which passes Nihonbashi, is certified by World Athletics. The race holds a World Athletics elite label, and the organisers set the field at 18,000 runners.

Ngetich, 25, came to Tokyo as world half marathon champion. She won the title at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen on 20 September in 1:05:15, a women-only half marathon world record subject to World Athletics ratification, one second faster than the 1:05:16 that Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya ran in 2020. She also holds the world 10km records of 28:46, set in a mixed race, and 29:27, set in a women-only race.

She won her first half marathon, in Valencia, Spain, in October 2024, in 1:03:04. Athletics Kenya said that is a Kenyan record and that only Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey, with 1:02:52 in Valencia in 2021, has run faster.

The Kenyan news site Capital FM said she has failed to win only one of the eight races she has run this year: the New York Half Marathon on 15 March, where she was 13th in 1:10:25.

Mutiso, 30, is from Makueni County. He won the London Marathon in April 2024 in 2:04:01 and was third at the Tokyo Marathon in March this year in 2:03:38. World Athletics and Athletics Kenya list him as Alexander Munyao; the organisers and Capital FM use Alexander Mutiso. His personal bests on his World Athletics profile are 57:59 for the half marathon, from December 2020, and 2:03:11 for the marathon, from December 2023.