For the third straight year both the Ethiopian men's and women's teams won the Chiba International Ekiden quite convincingly, today, Tuesday (23 Nov).

Zewde and Defar demolish stage records

Yet it was not a run away victory from the start for Ethiopians, but by the second stage there was little doubt as to who would win, for after that the Ethiopian teams were never threatened. The men won in 1:56:57, while the women were victorious with 2:11:54.  Both fell Ethiopian squads fell short of the record times they set last year but while the Kenyan men's team and Japanese women's team ran well, they were no match for them. 

Outstanding stage records were set by Meregu Zewde for the men and Meseret Defar for the women. Zwede ran 13:08 for the 5Km fourth stage. It was a 21 seconds improvement on the record Markos Geneti of Ethiopia set in 2003.

"It was my first road race over 5Km and I expected to run around 13 minutes. However, 13:08 was still a good time. I was not aware of the stage record." said Zewde after the race.

In the women’s division Defar, the Olympic 5000m champion, ran the 4.676Km course in 14:44.  It was a 28 seconds improvement on the previous record, 15:12, set by Lylia Vulkova in 2002. What is amazing is that the last two Km of the course on this stage gains about 13m in elevation. 

Men's race: Gebremariam breaks away

Immediately after the start, Ryosuke Fukuyama of the Chiba team took off and ran alone for 2.8Km before being reeled in by the chasing pack. The re-formed lead pack ran together for a little over 1Km, but just before 4Km Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania broke away.

The three nations run together for 1.5Km but at 5.5Km into the race, Martin Mathathi of Kenya broke away from his rivals. Apparently by putting Mathathi, their best runner, in the first leg, Kenya hoped to be ahead of Ethiopia, in order to encourage the best from the rest of their runners. It is one of the Ekiden strategies that have worked before for some teams.

By the end of the 10Km first stage Mathathi led by 31 seconds over Tanzania, who in turn was another 4 seconds seconds ahead of Ethiopia.

The second stage runners were Markos Geneti for Ethiopia and Philip Mosima, a former World Junior record holder at 5000m, for Kenya. Geneti ran well and at the end of the second stage the gap was cut to 16 seconds. 

In the third stage, Gebre Gebremariam ran for Ethiopia, while Julius Maina went for Kenya.  At 5.4Km into the third stage Gebremariam caught Maina and 200m later he moved ahead of Maina.

The minor places were changing as well. Toshinari Suwa of Japan, who was sixth in the Olympic Marathon, was closing the gap on Tanzanian, and finally 7.8Km into the third stage caught his target.  Soon Sweden also joined Tanzania and another 500m later Japan did the same.

Then at the turn around point, Suwa was by chnace the only runner who made the turn at the correct point, with Tanzania and Sweden missing it and having to work their way back.

Soon Sweden’s team moved into the third place, while Japan was fourth and Tanzania fifth. Into the fourth stage, Sweden lost ground as Japan and Tanzania fought hard for the third spot.  Eventually, Japan solidified its third place position. 

Up near at the front, the 5Km fourth stage turned out to be crucial, for Meregu Zewde of Ethiopia completely broke the race apart. At the end of the fourth stage, Zewde put the Ethiopian team a minute and nine seconds ahead of the Kenyan team. Another two minutes and more behind Kenyans, Japan was in third place by the end of the fourth stage. 

During the final 12.195Km stage, Abebe Dinkesa of Ethiopia moved his team further ahead as he ran nearly a minute faster than Kenyan Josephat Ndmbiri. 

Ethiopia won in 1:56:57, over two minutes ahead of Kenya, who ran almost as fast as the last year. Japan finished third for the third year in the row, finishing some 10 seconds faster than last year.

Women's race: Defar breaks race apart

In the women's race, Ethiopia, Kenya, Japan, Russia and Romania immediately broke away from the rest. 

Uncharacteristically, 11 minutes into the race Hiromi Ominami of Japan started to fall behind but she remained reasonably close to the leaders. Soon Eyerusalem Kuma of Ethiopia and Jane Wanjiku of Kenya broke away from the Russians and Romanians. Kuma and Wanjiku fought hard all the way for 10Km and at the end of the first stage, they were only one second apart. 

Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia and Mary Wangari of Kenya ran together for eight minutes into the second stage before Melkamu pulled away. Meanwhile less than five minutes into her stage Takako Kotorida of Japan passed Romania and Russia for third position.  At the end of the second stage, Ethiopia was 33 seconds ahead Kenya, while Kotorida was another four seconds back behind Kenya.

On the third stage, Yoko Shibui, the national marathon record holder, and Lucy Wangui of Kenya fought hard all the way, while the Ethiopians pulled slightly ahead. 

In the fourth stage, thanks to Mari Ozaki, who recorded the fastest stage, Japan moved way ahead of Kenya, and closer to Ethiopia. 

However, in the next stage, Meseret Defar, the Olympic 5000m champion, completely ran away from the field.  With the World 5000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba running the final stage of the Ekiden, Ethiopia pulled further away from the field. 

At the end Ethiopian won by over two minutes over Japan, who moved up one spot from last year.  Kenya dropped one place from last year.  

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF

Results

Men:
1) ETH  (Abera Chane, Markos Geneti, G Gebremariam, Maregu Zewde, Abebe Dinkesa)  1:56:57
2) KEN  1:59:03
3) JPN  2:01:43
4) BRA   2:02:29
5) SWE  2:02:42
6) TAN   2:03:42
7) USA   2:03:45
8) RUS  2:04:25
9) JPN University team  2:05:00
10) CAN  2:05:13
11) AUS  2:05:20
12) MAR  2:06:27
13) CHN   2:07:01
14) FRA  2:07:04
15) Chiba prefecture team  2:12:24

Women:
1) ETH (E Kuma, M Melkamu, E Dibaba, S Ejigu, M Defar, T Dibaba)  2:11:54
2) JPN  2:14:15
3) KEN  2:15:17
4) RUS  2:16:18
5) ROM   2:19:32
6) AUS   2:20:28
7) Chiba prefecture team  2:21:29
8) CHN  2:22:37
9) GBR   2:23:24
10) USA  2:23:36
11) BLR   2:24:42
12) POL   2:24:53
13) BRA   2:26:01
14) UKR  2:26:18
15) SCG  2:34:38 

Best stage (ETH unless otherwise denoted):  

Men:
1 10Km 27:29 Martin Mathathi (KEN)
2 5Km 13:29 Markos Geneti
3 10Km 27:57 Gebre Gebremariam
4 5Km 13:08 Maregu Zewde
5 12.195K 34:19 Abebe Dinkesa

Women:
1 10Km  31:27 Eyerusalem Kuma
2 5Km 15:20 Meselech Melkamu
3 10Km 31:59 Ejegayehu Dibaba
4 5Km 15:25 Mari Ozaki   (JPN) 
5 4.767K  14:44 Meseret Defar
6 7.428K 22:51 Tirunesh Dibaba