In two dominating performances, Ethiopians Endeshaw Negesse and Birhane Dibaba swept the men’s and women’s field Sunday at the Tokyo Marathon. 

 

After taking charge of the lead with 3k to go, Negesse charged through the finish line in 2:06:00, 33 seconds ahead of runner-up Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda. Defending Tokyo Marathon champion Dickson Chumba was third in 2:06:36. 

 

Negesse boasts a personal best marathon mark of 2:04:52, which he ran at the Dubai Marathon in Jan. 2013. 

 

With no female competitors in sight for the later quarter of the race, Dibaba took the women’s title in a finishing time of 2:23:14 over Helah Kiprop (2:24:03), and 2012 Olympic champ Tiki Gelana (2:24:26). 

 

21-year-old Dibaba was the 2014 Tokyo Marathon runner-up and finished fourth at the Chicago Marathon in the same year. 

 

The Tokyo Marathon is the first race in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series, followed by Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin and New York.