Tasmania's Clark came home in two hours, 28 minutes and eight seconds in Sunday's race to post a new personal best and go well under the Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifying mark of 2:29:30.

Her blistering finish almost ended with her running down Rodah Jepkorir but the Kenyan hung on to win in 2:27:56 with Eritrea's Nazret Weldu third in 2:28:57.

Despite narrowly missing out on the win, Clark ticked all the boxes she had set herself and was thrilled with the result.

"I had a lot of fun," she said.

"There wasn't a moment that I wasn't loving it.

"Honestly it was perfect. Everything went exactly the way I wanted it to go. I just wanted to hopefully run a PB and finish in the top three and I did both so I'm super stoked."

In the men's race, Japan's Yuta Shitara set a new race record of 2:07:50 to become the eighth Japanese winner in the 41-year history of the event.

Shitara came home ahead of Kenyan Barnabus Kiptum and New Zealand's Zane Robertson.

Hong Kong marathon winner Kiptum set a personal best of 2:08:02 while Robertson capped off his marathon debut with a 2:08:19 to secure a New Zealand record.

There was agony for best-placed Australian Liam Adams who finished sixth in 2:11:36.

The result will be bittersweet for the Victorian with his new PB just six seconds outside the Olympic qualifying mark.

Australian Associated Press