Kenyan Benson Kipruto and Ethiopian Sutume Kebede won the Tokyo Marathon in men’s and women’s race record times.
Eliud Kipchoge, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, was 10th for his lowest finish in 20 career marathons.
Sifan Hassan, the Dutch distance star who won in her first two marathons last year, placed fourth.
Kipruto, 32, clocked 2 hours, 2 minutes, 16 seconds to become the fifth fastest marathoner in history.
TOKYO MARATHON: Results
He previously won the 2021 Boston Marathon and 2022 Chicago Marathon and has finished no worse than third in his last seven marathons, six of which were majors.
Kipchoge, 39, ran 2:06:50 after he began dropping off the lead before hitting halfway.
“I can only say that sport is about good days and bad days,” was posted on Kipchoge’s social media. “Unfortunately, today was a bad day for me.”
It marked just his fourth defeat in 20 career marathons, a decade-plus career at 26.2 miles that’s included two world record-breaking runs.
Kipchoge was sixth in his spring 2023 marathon in Boston, then rebounded to win his fifth Berlin Marathon title on Sept. 24 in his most recent race.
Kenya has not yet named its three-man marathon team for the Paris Olympics. If Kipchoge is named, he will bid to become the first person to win three Olympic marathons.
Kebede, 29, won the women’s race in 2:15:55, knocking 2:17 off her personal best for her first major marathon win.
Hassan ran 2:18:05 after clocking 2:18:33 to win London last April 23 and 2:13:44 to win Chicago on Oct. 8. Her Chicago time was the second-fastest women’s marathon in history.
“I missed my bottle at 25k and turned back to get it,” was posted on her social media. “Unfortunately after that, I was not able to close the gap with the first group. However, once again, the marathon taught me valuable lessons that will help me to be stronger in the future.”
At the Tokyo Olympics, Hassan became the first woman to win medals in the 1500m (bronze), 5000m (gold) and 10,000m (gold) at the same Games.
Six weeks before the Chicago Marathon, she again ran the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m at the world championships, adding a silver and a bronze.
She has not announced which race(s) she plans to contest at the Paris Olympics.
Betsy Saina was fifth in Tokyo in 2:19:17, the third fastest marathon in U.S. women’s history behind the last two American records run by Emily Sisson (2:18:29) and Keira D’Amato (2:19:12).
Saina was one of the pre-race favorites at the Olympic Trials on Feb. 3 and did not finish.
The next major marathon is the Boston Marathon on April 15.