• Former world record-holder Tigist Assefa heads the field on both PBs and season's bests
• Peres Jepchirchir returns to the scene of her 2021 Olympic triumph
• Strong trio of Japanese athletes hoping to give the home crowd something to cheer about

On paper, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa looks the woman to beat over 26.2 miles on the streets of Tokyo.

Her credentials in the marathon are long established. She is a two-time winner of the Berlin Marathon and won London earlier this year with a world-leading 2:15:50.

For a period, Assefa was also the world record-holder, clocking 2:11:53 in Berlin in 2023 to chop more than two minutes off the previous mark.

The 28-year-old will firmly have her sights set on gold having missed out agonisingly in the final throes of the Olympic marathon in a literal shoulder-to-shoulder finish with Sifan Hassan in Paris last summer.

Her closet challenger potentially comes from closer to home in the form of compatriot Sutume Asefa Kebede, who clearly has the credentials for running in the Japanese capital having won the Tokyo Marathon for the past two years.

Kebede’s winning time of 2:16:31 puts her second on this year's world list. She also holds the Japanese all-comers' record with her 2:15:55 winning run in Tokyo last year. But Kebede isn't the only athlete in the field with prior major success in Tokyo.

Peres Jepchirchir struck gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, coming during a three-year period when the Kenyan was unbeaten at the marathon.

The three-time world half marathon has notched up marathon victories in London, Boston, New York and Valencia. She finished 14th at the Olympics last year, but will be out to prove she is still a contender in a major marathon.

Like Assefa, fellow Ethiopian Tigist Ketema started out as an 800m runner before moving up in distance. On her marathon debut last year, she won in Dubai in 2:16:07. She then finished seventh in London but ended the year with another victory, clocking 2:16:42 to win in Berlin.

Jepchirchir is joined on the Kenyan team by Magdalene Masai, whose siblings Linet and Moses are both former World Championship medallists. Masai finished fourth at this year's Tokyo Marathon in 2:19:28, just half a minute shy of the PB she set in Frankfurt last year.

Japan has a proud tradition in marathon running and the home crowd will no doubt be out in force to support Sayaka Sato, Yuka Ando and Kana Kobayashi.

Sato secured selection for Tokyo by finishing runner-up in Nagoya with a time of 2:20:59 in March. Kobayashi was the top finisher in Osaka in January, while Ando won the 2024 Nagoya Marathon.

Israel's Lonah Salpeter could also feature in the lead pack. World bronze medallist in 2022, she finished just outside the medals in Budapest one year later, and was eighth at the Olympics last year.

Stella Chesang finished one place ahead of Salpeter at the Paris 2024 Games, then ended her year by smashing the Ugandan record with 2:18:26 in Valencia. She failed to finish in Nagoya in March, but rebounded one month later to place sixth in London.

Bahrain has two athletes in the top tier of the entry list in Shiteye Eshete and Eunice Chumba. Eshete is slightly faster on season's bests, but Chumba has a better championship record in the marathon.

Others worthy of a mention to potentially challenge for the podium include China’s Zhang Deshun and Jackline Cherono of Kenya.

Zhang was just outside the top 10 at the 2022 World Championships, ran in Budapest a year later and has two Olympic marathons under her belt. Cherono, meanwhile, began her athletics career in the steeplechase but has since moved to marathon running and won in Rotterdam earlier this year.

Matt Majendie for World Athletics