Eliud Kipchoge has emerged winner in the NN Mission Marathon currently taking place in the Netherlands.
Kipchoge won the 42km in 2hours, 4minutes and 30 seconds at the Twente Airport in the Netherlands.
This was his first outing since a shock defeat at October's London marathon, where he came eighth after having some complications on his ear.
His training mate, Jonathan Korir finished second in 2:06:4 ahead of third-placed Eritrean Goitom Kifle (2:08:00).
“It's a mission accomplished...this was the real test towards Tokyo, it’s good to test your fitness,”Kipchoge said.
"...the conditions were good a bit windy but I have no complains we all run in the same conditions and the race was perfect."
The two were among around 100 elite athletes who were competing in this one off race in the streets of Enschede to secure a qualification mark for Tokyo.
All the men’s top 15 finishers achieved the Olympic qualification mark
In the women's race, German Katharina Steinruck finished first in 2:25:59 ahead of Portuguese Sara Moreira (2:26:42) and fellow countrywoman Rabea Schoneborn (2:27:03) who finished second and third respectively.
Kenyan Gladys Chesir finished eighth in 2:29:16 after losing ground with the leading pack halfway through the race.
The race was moved 300m apart, from Hamburg in Germany to Enschede in the Netherlands following the third wave of Covid-19.
On Tuesday, NN Mission Marathon announced that the race, which was initially slated for April 11th in Hamburg, Germany was pushed to 18th.
The athletes were paced by Barcelona half marathon champion Victor Chumo, Gideon Kipketer, Noah Kipkemboi, Philemon Kacheran, two time Toronto marathon winner Philemon Rono, Alex Kibarus, Jackson Kiprop, Moses Koech, Sylvester Kiptoo and Bernard Cheptoch.
