Gelmisa triumphed in a three-way sprint with Mohamed Esa and Tsegaye Getachew to cross the finish line first in front of Tokyo Station in the Japanese capital's Marunouchi district.

He clocked 2 hours 5min 22sec to finish less than one second clear of Esa, while Getachew finished three seconds off the pace in third in this World Marathon Majors event. 

Kenya's Titus Kipruto performed strongly in 2:05:32 and fifth-placed Cameron Levins of Canada broke the North American record in 2:05:36, but neither could prevent an Ethiopian one-two-three.

Competing in only her second marathon after a second-place finish in Berlin last year, Wanjiru proved too strong for the rest of the women's field.

She dominated the race, and ran clear from the 39-kilometres mark and recorded a personal best 2:16:28, the seventh-fastest women's marathon time in history.

Ethiopia's Tsehay Gemechu was 28 seconds off the pace in second, and her compatriot Ashete Bekere third in 2:19:11.

Defending champion Marcel Hug of Switzerland triumphed in the men's wheelchair race in 1:20:57 and his compatriot Manuela Schär in 1:36:43 in the women's wheelchair race.

Both set course-record times.

The Tokyo Marathon returned to a full field of 38,000 athletes for the first time since 2019, after an easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

It is the first of the six World Marathon Majors of the year and a World Athletics Platinum Label road race.

The next scheduled World Marathon Major is the Boston Marathon on April 17.