Skip to main content

Tadese Over Mathathi for Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon CR; Tufa Gets Women's CR in Close Race With Kirwa

by Brett Larner
video by Nick Ramsay



World record holder Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) took down defending champion Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) at Sunday's Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, getting away early to set a new course record of 1:00:31.  Leading a pack of six through a 14:14 opening 5 km split, Tadese dropped a 14:04 over the next 5 km to take the race out of the competition's comfort zones and go ahead alone.  With a 37-second lead over the chase group of Mathathi, Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) and Cyrus Njui (Kenya/ Team Hitachi Butsuryu) at 15 km Tadese backed off to a 14:34 split from 15 to 20 km, but despite Mathathi and Wanjuki picking it up and closing the gap they were too far away and had to settle for a duel for 2nd, Mathathi proving the stronger as he crossed the line in 1:00:54, two seconds ahead of Wanjuki.  Moscow World Championships marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), running just a week after going sub-64 at the Sendai International Half Marathon, struggled in to a 14th-place finish in 1:05:05.

The women's race was much closer, with Mestawet Tufa (Ethiopia) and Eunice Kirwa (Kenya) locked together through 20 km and pushing each other on to break the course record.  Tufa's last surge was too much for Kirwa to handle, the Ethiopia getting course record honors in 1:10:03.  Kirwa, 6 seconds back, also cleared the old record in 1:10:09, with Australian Lara Tamsett rounding out the top three in 1:13:33 after running the entire race alone.  Yuko Mizuguchi (Team Denso) was the top Japanese finisher, 4th overall in 1:14:44.

3rd Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon
Gifu, 5/19/13
complete results coming shortly

Men
1. Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) - 1:00:31 - CR
2. Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:00:54
3. Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:00:55
4. Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Butsuryu) - 1:01:08
5. Abayneh Ayele (Ethiopia/Team Mazda) - 1:01:43
6. Patrick Muwaka (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 1:01:57
7. Micah Njeru (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:38
8. Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:03:45
9. Yoshiki Otsuka (Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:04:37
10. Ryan Vail (U.S.A.) - 1:04:52
-----
14. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:05:05

Women
1. Mestawet Tufa (Ethiopia) - 1:10:03 - CR
2. Eunice Kirwa (Kenya) - 1:10:09
3. Lara Tamsett (Australia) - 1:13:33
4. Yuko Mizuguchi (Team Denso) - 1:14:44
5. Chika Nakama (Team Aichi Denki) - 1:15:47
6. Rina Asano (Team Yutaka Giken) - 1:16:07
7. Mayumi Nagai (Team Kojima Press) - 1:16:38
8. Shizuka Takatani (Team Aichi Denki) - 1:16:52
9. Maiko Murayama (Team T&F) - 1:17:28
10. Hitomi Ogata (Team Aichi Denki) - 1:17:37

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

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

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

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters