STRENGTH IN NUMBERS AS LARGE JAPANESE CONTINGENT HEADLINES QUALITY ASICS GOLD COAST MARATHON FIELD

One of the strongest ever elite fields will assemble for the 46th running of the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon on Sunday 5 July.

This year’s field boasts 13 male runners with sub 2:10 personal best times, headlined by Kenyan star Elisha Rotich whose stunning 2:04:21 personal best from Paris places him among the fastest athletes ever to compete on the Gold Coast. The experienced 36-year-old arrives in strong form after claiming victory at the 2025 Kobe Marathon.

He will be joined on the start line by Ethiopian Abayneh Degu Tsehay (2:04:53) and Kenyan’s Benson Tunyo (2:06:10) and Dominic Ngeno (2:06:37) who both come into the race in good form.

The African flyers will continue a long-standing rivalry with Japanese runners for ASICS Gold Coast Marathon honours, with African runners winning 10 of the last 20 editions of the race, ahead of Japan (eight) and Australia (two). However, Japan has shown recent dominance winning four of the past five editions of the race.

Another large cohort of elite Japanese runners will converge on this year’s race following last year’s domination which saw Japan’s Yuki Takei smash the race record (2:07:33) ahead of compatriots Aoi Ota (2:08:31) and Ryoma Takeuchi (2:08:38). The first six finishers over the line were all Japanese.

Takeuchi returns to build on last year’s efforts alongside Japanese countrymen Hidekazu Hijikata (2:06:26), cult hero Yuki Kawauchi (2:07:27), Mizuki Higashi (2:08:03), Ryuichi Hashimoto (2:09:40), 2022 Gold Coast Marathon winner Jo Fukuda (2:09:52), who is aiming to do the 63.3km double and Kaisei Sugiyama (2:09:55).

The Africans and Japanese athletes won’t have it all their own way though as strong challenges will also come from Turkey’s Ilham Ozbilen (2:08:36) and Josh Izewski (2:10:54) from the USA, who will be returning to race the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon for the third time.

The Australian charge will be led by Haftu Strintzos (2:11:27), who tasted 10km victory on the Gold Coast in 2024. He comes into the race in red-hot form after setting a new Australian all-comers record for the half marathon (1:00:41) in Launceston on 31 May this year.

The Australians will be looking to break a 20-year drought with Lee Troop’s 2006 victory being the last time an Australian stood on the top step of the podium on the Gold Coast.

With extraordinary depth throughout the field, the 2026 men’s marathon has all the ingredients to produce one of the fastest and most exciting races ever seen at the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon.