Skip to main content

Kisorio Wins Deepest-Ever Marugame International Half-Marathon

by Brett Larner

Like other races across the country, the 2012 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon was fortunate to have ideal conditions for a historic men's race.  Sub-59 Kenyan Matthew Kisorio had little trouble with the win, running a minute ahead of Japan-based Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) but missing both the course record of 59:48 and Samuel Wanjiru's Japanese all-comers' record of 59:43 after a fast first half.  Gitau, a graduate of Nihon University, ran in a chase trio together with his successor at Nihon, Benjamin Gandu and pro Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko), narrowly outkicking both as both he and Gandu recorded strong new PBs.  Further back, a second trio of Japanese men Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota), Arata Fujiwara (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) and Shinobu Kubota (Komazawa Univ.) likewise worked together, all three recording massive new PBs.

Kubota, the winner of this year's Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage, made a move late in the race to drop Komazawa grad Takabayashi and 2010 Ottawa Marathon course record setter Fujiwara, but in the final kick both proved stronger than the university runner.  Takabayashi, the only one to have broken 62 minutes previously, took nearly 30 seconds off his best as he ran 1:01:31.  Fujiwara, virtually invisible over the last year with serial injuries, was a shock as he took 43 seconds off his six-year-old PB.  Kubota, a 20-year-old sophomore, was an ever bigger shock as he took more than three minutes off his best to mark the best-ever time by a Japanese runner under age 22 and the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese collegiate runner on a record-elligible course.  Close behind him was another 20-year-old sophomore, Keita Shitara of Hakone Ekiden winners Toyo University, 14th in 1:01:45 in his half marathon debut, the all-time 3rd-best Japanese collegiate time.  Kubota's teammate Hiromitsu Kakuage (Komazawa Univ.), the #2 Japanese half marathoner of 2011, also went under 62, 20th in 1:01:56.  Altogether this year's Marugame was the deepest quality half marathon in history, with 24 men sub-62, a record 47 under 63 minutes, another record of 76 under 64 minutes, and time-for-place records extending even deeper.

Fan favorite Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) also had a big day, running a 22-second PB to finish 27th in 1:02:18.  Based on the ratio of his PBs last year, 1:02:40 in Marugame and 2:08:40 in Tokyo, Kawauchi needed to run under 1:02:21 to have a shot at his goal of a 2:07 in Tokyo at the end of the month.  It looks like all systems go, but with Fujiwara pulling out an unexpectedly great comeback run and World Championships track runner Yuki Iwai (Team Asahi Kasei) likewise running a sub-62 PB ahead of his marathon debut in Tokyo it looks as though the Olympic marathon team spot up for grabs in Tokyo could be very tough to secure.

In the absence of Kenyan Sarah Chepchirchir in the women's race Ethiopian Tiki Gelana had even less trouble than Kisorio in scoring the win, running a nearly two-minute PB of 1:08:48 to take the race by almost two minutes over marathoner Kaoru Nagano (Team Univ. Ent.).  Along with Nagao, the top three Japanese women all ran sub-71 PBs, with five Japanese women altogether breaking 71 minutes.  Meijo University star Sayo Nomura was perhaps the biggest surprise, 3rd overall in a PB of 1:10:34.

2012 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon
Marugame, 2/5/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Matthew Kisorio (Kenya) - 1:00:02
2. Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) - 1:01:02 - PB
3. Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:01:03
4. Benjamin Gandu (Kenya/Nihon Univ.) - 1:01:06 - PB
5. Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) - 1:01:31 - PB
6. Arata Fujiwara (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 1:01:34 - PB
7. Shinobu Kubota (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:01:38 - PB
8. Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:01:42 - PB
9. Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) - 1:01:44 - PB
10. Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya) - 1:01:44
-----
22. Yuki Iwai (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:58 - PB
27. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 1:02:18 - PB
29. Rachid Kisri (Morocco) - 1:02:21
54. Dmytro Baranovskyy (Ukraine) - 1:03:14
65. Alistair Cragg (Ireland) - 1:03:39
DNF - Cosmas Ondiba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.)

Women
1. Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) - 1:08:48 - PB
2. Kaoru Nagao (Team Univ. Ent.) - 1:10:32 - PB
3. Sayo Nomura (Meijo Univ.) - 1:10:34 - PB
4. Misato Horie (Team Noritz) - 1:10:37 - PB
5. Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:10:39
6. Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) - 1:10:48
7. Megumi Seike (Team Sysmex) - 1:11:40
8. Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) - 1:11:45
9. Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) - 1:11:51
10. Rika Shintaku (Team Shimamura) - 1:11:52

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hello, any idea how Atsushi Sato did? Thanks in advance!
Brett Larner said…
Looks like Sato was a DNS.
yuza said…
It is hard to imagine that a man could run 62:18 in a half marathon race and finish 27th!

It is kind of depressing, but as fast as some of the times were by the men, most of them are still not quite fast enough to be competitive on the world stage.

Thanks for the responce to my previous question on another thread.
Anonymous said…
Are we sure this was an accurate course. So many fast times ...
Brett Larner said…
As far as I know there was no course change this year. Marugame is a certified course and an IAAF silver label event.

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr