The Tokyo Marathon took place against a backdrop of empty streets and with just a couple of hundred runners due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Organisers had reduced the entries to just elite runners and wheelchair athletes with the mass race, which usually attracts around 38,000 runners, cancelled.
Ethiopian Birhanu Legese won the men’s race for the second year in a row in two hours four minutes and 15 seconds, while Israel’s Lonah Korlima Chemtai Salpeter won the women’s race in a course record time of 2:17.45.
Tokyo is due to host the Olympics from 24 July to 9 August.
More than 200 people have so far been infected with the coronavirus in Japan, while at least 621 people who were on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship which was held in quarantine off the port of Yokohama, tested positive.
Schools in Japan have shut for two weeks, and Japan’s football league postponed domestic fixtures until mid-March.
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