Japan’s Marathon tradition
K. Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
A few days before this year’s Tokyo ladies marathon, Ari Ichihashi the 1999 World marathon silver medallist was pre-selected for an Olympic team.
All the main contenders for the marathon team, running Tokyo ladies marathon knew that winning is not enough to be considered for the team. They knew that winning time would also be very important. Despite the sunny and unseasonably weather (18c), the race was expected to be fast, and indeed it was even faster than everyone expected.
Masako Chiba in her first serious marathon (she has run the 1998 Sydney marathon as a training run) pushed the pace from the start.
Chiba hit 5km in 16:18 and 10km in 32:44. To everyone’s surprise it was Eri Yamaguchi, a 1998 Hokkaido marathon champion who followed Chiba closely. The chase pack consisting Hiromi Suzuki, a 1997 world marathon champion, Valentina Yegorova, a 1992 Olympic marathon champion, and Fatuma Roba a 1996 Olympic marathon champion was more than 30 seconds behind at 10km.
There have been many races, which started very fast, but fizzled at the end, but this was not one of them. At 11km, Yamaguchi took over the lead; by 15km (49:18), she left Chiba behind and was on her way to the fastest women only marathon on the out and back course.
Before the race, her goal was 2:23, which she and her coach felt was necessary to make an Olympic team. Even though her 10,000m PB was only 32:07.26, she kept on recording sub 17:00 for each 5km splits (16:24, 16:22, 16:32, 16:33, 16:49 and 16:55) until 30km.
Because of 30m elevation gain during 35-40km section of the course, her split slowed to 17:55 but she still managed to record 2:22:12, the 8th fastest time.
More significantly, it was the fastest women only marathon over out and back course.
Roba who lost contact with the chase pack of Suzuki and Yegorova at 9.3km passed both of them and eventually Chiba over the hill to finish second in 2:27:05.
Troubled by blisters on both feet, Suzuki could only finish 9th ib 2:31:29; her Olympic dream was shattered.
Two days later on Nov 23 in Chiba, 11th edition of Chiba ekiden was held. To stop the 7 year winning streak by Japanese women, Kenyan placed their best runners in the first two stages. The Japan based Kenyans, Eshter Wanjiru and Anne Wamucii, gave commanding lead (1:01 after 15km) for the Kenyan team by running fastest legs for each of two opening stages (31:22for 10km first leg, and 15:46 for 5km second leg).
But then tiny (149cm tall) Emiko Kojima slowly chipped away the Kenyan lead and by end of 3rd leg Japanese was only 31 seconds behind. After a Michiko Shimizu`s fabulous run (15:33 for 5km stage 4), Japanese were 7 seconds ahead.
From then on, it was all Japan, and the team won the race for 8th time in a row. The men’s race may have been the most exciting ekiden race in its 11-year history.
After the 10km opening leg, RSA was 8th (28:25) and the defending champion Japan was 13th (28:47). Both team moved up after 5km 2nd leg (RSA was 7th in 42:34 and Japan 11th in 42:46). Then in the 10km third leg, with a fabulous run by M Nobanda of RSA, the team moved up to second (1:10:55).
A 2:06 marathon runner Takayuki Inubushi also moved his team up to 4th place (1:11:31). After another 5km leg, RSA was in the lead with 1:24:50 while Japan was 4th in 1:25:27. In the final leg, Nkete of RSA initially moved into commanding lead, but Japan`s Ken-ichi Takahashi running an anchor leg for the second year in a row caught Hanneck, Carroll and finally joined Nkete at 37.8km into the race.
They run together for a 1000m before Nkete surged away, only to be rejoined by Takahashi at 40.5km again. The race came down to the sprint on the track, and it was Nkete who first made his move with 500m (in what appeared to be a misjudged finish line) to go.
Nkete looked confused as he crossed the line with a 400m to go, but he kept going. Down the back straight for the last time Takahashi made up all the distance between him and Nkete and moved ahead of him around the bend. He brought his team to victory in the anchor leg for the two years in a row. When asked about a possible confusion about the finish line, Nkete emphasized that he know that they must run two laps around the track.
Tokyo
1 Eri Yamaguchi 2:22:12
2 Fatuma Roba 2:27:05
3 V Yegorova 2:28:06
4 J Salmae 2:28:56
5 Masako Chiba 2:29:00
6 Junko Kataoka 2:30:10
7 Yingjie Sun 2:30:29
8 Mineko Yamanouchi 2:30:35
9 Hiromi Suzuki 2:31:29
Chiba ekiden
women 6 legs 42.195 (10km, 5km, 10km, 5km, 4.767km, 7.428km)
1 Japan 2:15:36
2 Russia 2:17:08
3 China 2:17:18
4 Romania 2:17:51
5 Kenya 2:18:32
men 5 legs 42.195km (10km, 5km, 10km, 5km, 12.195km)
1 Japan 2:00:17
2 RSA 2:00:22
3 AUS 2:00:48
4 USA 2:01:57
5 ESP 2:02:39
