With apologies to the fine city of Houston and its world-class half and marathon, any road race—no matter how fast its results and star-studded its entry lists—that takes place in January is ultimately part of the preseason.

We were wowed by Zouhair Talbi’s 2:05:45 win, appreciated Habtom Samuel taking time away from his NCAA obligations to crush a 59:01 half, and energized by Taylor Roe and several other Americans’ rock solid season openers over 13.1. But hey… none of these stellar performances got these athletes any closer to earning their World Marathon Major six-seven-star medal. And that’s why anybody—even athletes knocking on the sub-2:03/2:20 door included—runs marathons, right?

Thankfully, after this past weekend’s Tokyo Marathon, the World Major season is officially underway. And what an opening salvo it was!

Brigid Kosgei’s 2:14:29 is the fastest women’s marathon time ever run on Asian soil and the seventh quickest mark in history. Her margin of victory—over two minutes up on second-placer Bertukan Welde in 2:16:36—reiterated her dominance on the day. But to truly appreciate how good Kosgei is right now, we need to pay a visit to ultimate fourth-place finisher Sutume Asefa Kebede, who previously held the course and Asian all-comer’s record.

Kebede and Kosgei ran stride for stride for 30km before Kebede began to reckon with that decision. Over the race’s remaining miles, a three-plus minute gap opened up between the two, Kebede’s brave early efforts rewarded by her being kicked off the podium thanks to a last-second charge to the finish by Hawi Feysa.

Kosgei decisively beat some really fast marathoners, including several who had higher world rankings than her coming into the race. And because she did so at the first Major of the year—a massive stage, but at a time when we have little other data to go on—we have to consider the possibility that she’s returned to the form she exhibited in the late 2010s and early 2020s, when she struck Olympic silver, and won five World Majors. She also became one of two women ever to run sub-2:15 on multiple occasions… but the other athlete on that list is Ruth Chepngetich, so she’s the solo non-busted-for-doping member of the club. Is Kosgei one of the handful of women looking to claim the mantle of “World’s Best Marathoner” right now? It’s hard to say she isn’t!

While the women’s race was highlighted by Kosgei’s run-away victory, the men’s came down to a three-way kick for glory between Tadese Takele, Geofry Kipchumba, and Alexander Munyao: 2:03:37 to 2:03:37 to 2:03:38, with Takele nosing out the win.

First off, yeah… hell yeah… HELL YEAH! That’s the type of finish you absolutely love to see at a race of this caliber. As is practically a national tradition at this point, Japan’s Ryuichi Hashimoto took things out honest and then some, leading the field out at a quick clip for the first half of the race before fading to six minute pace and a 2:11:21 finish. But the three podium finishers were able to stick with every move and keep things as interesting as possible for the full 26.2-mile race.

Like in the women’s race, in the absence of who’s generally considered the marathon’s true top dogs right now—there’s not a single clear best marathoner, but we usually count Sebastian Sawe, John Korir, and Jacob Kiplimo as the contenders—drawing first WWM blood goes a long way to establishing yourself as a candidate for the honor.

Those are the top-line takeaways. There were other, below-the-fold happenings though, as well. Peiyou Feng set a Chinese national record (2:05:58) in 10th. Selemon Barega lowered his PB to 2:05:00 in his second attempt at the marathon. And Syracuse alum Illiass Aouani’s 2:04:26 performance marked a 90-second PB and the fastest marathon on record for a runner who once competed in the NCAA.

That’s the beauty of getting your first big shot out of the way early on the calendar: you establish the tone everyone else has to match or better for the rest of the year. It’s not exactly a given that just because a race is a World Major it’ll be captivating or narrative bolstering. But Kosgei, Takele, Kipchumba, and Munyao delivered on the promise of what elite marathoning ought to be.

Now it’s up to the rest of the world—in particular, any Americans, largely absent from Tokyo, who have something to say—to issue a rebuttal in Boston next month.

For more of the top stories and analysis from the biggest stories in track and field from the past week, subscribe to The Lap Count newsletter for free. New edition every Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m. ET.