News07 Mar 2005


Joseph Riri wins Lake Biwa Marathon

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Joseph Riri (KEN) wins Lake Biwa in 2:09:00 (© Takefumi Tsutsui - AgenceSHOT)

Despite turning prematurely just before the entrance of the Ojiyama stadium, so increasing the distance he had to run, Joseph Riri of Kenya, won yesterday’s 60th Lake Biwa Marathon in 2:09:00 (Sunday 6).

Finishing second in the race, three seconds back, was the defending champion Jose Rios of Spain.  Finishing third, but more importantly the first Japanese in the race with 2:09:10 clocking, was Michitaka Hosokawa, so automatically qualifying for the marathon team for Helsinki.  Two other Japanese, Wataru Okutani and Yuko Matsumiya followed closely in 2:09:13 and 2:09:18 respectively and thus also have good chance to make team. The time was relatively slow because of the strong headwind after 31Km.

How the race unfolded

The three pacemakers, Lee Troop of Australia, Eluid Lagat of Kenya and Pablo Olmedo of Mexico, had been asked to lead the race with the pace of 15:05/Km, and did a good job during the early part of the race. After passing each of the first two Km in 2:58, the huge pack of 59 runners passed 5Km in 15:00.  The many of these runners stayed together until the half way.  Although the temperature during the race was around 9C, some of the runners had already started sweating by 6Km into the run.

The first major contender to lose contact with the leaders was Francisco Cortes of Spain; he was gone from the lead pack by 9Km, and the remaining 44 runners passed 10Km in 29:59.  Nearing 11Km, Olympic bronze medallist Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil moved into the lead to be ready for the aid station. 

In the early part of the race, tail wind was helping the runners, but after 13.6Km, the course turned toward north and thus the wind started to slow the runners.  The 15Km split was 45:08, at which point Lee Troop, one of the pace maker who was suppose to lead until 30Km, dropped out. A pack of 41 runners was still together at 15Km.

 De Lima dropped 

At 20Km (1:00:29), the leading group still included 38 runners, but soon after passing half way in 1:03:51, the real racing started.  First, the second pace maker Eliud Lagat started to fall off the pace, while Joseph Riri started to push the pace along with Olmedo, and de Lima, along with his countryman Marlilson dos Santos started to lose contact.  Lima was fighting a side stitch since 16Km.  Eventually at 33Km Lima dropped out of the race.  “I could hear fans cheering for me, but unfortunately I disappointed them. But, I am determined to run well on my next race,” said Lima after the race.  Many fans had lined up along the course to see Lima run. 

As the course turned toward south, the wind was behind the runners, and the pace was visibly picking up.   The 1Km stretch from 22Km to 23Km took only 2:55, while the next Km was covered in 2:57.  At 25Km, Olmedo, the final pacemaker was gone.  Two 2:08 runners Takatsuka and Ojima were also losing contact with the leaders.   Soon Riri and Rios started to stretch out the lead pack.  The real racing had started. 

Lead pack breaks into two

Tomohiro Seto, a marathon debutante, started to fall off rapidly from the leaders by 26.5Km.  By the 26th Km, which was covered in 2:55, the lead pack was starting to break up into two groups.  The first group consists of seven runners – Joseph Riri, Jose Rios, Toshiya Katayama, Wataru Okutani, Laban Kagika, Takashi Tokunaga and Michitaka Hosokawa, while the second group of four runners – Atsushi Fujita, Kenji Noguchi, Yuko Matsumiya and Ruggero Perfile – was several seconds behind. 

Soon, Tokunaga fell back from the first group, but Matsumiya made a move in the opposite direction but as he caught up Riri and Rios picked up the pace again and thus the lead group was further broken into two groups, and only Hosokawa, was able to stay with Riri and Rios.  The 28th Km was covered in 2:54, and Riri, Rios and Hosokawa then passed 30Km in 1:30:17. Kagika, Matsumiya and Okutani were in a group behind. formed the chase pack.

Just before the 30Km, the course again turned to north, and the strong headwind of around 5 – 6m/s started to slow down the runners.  They could no longer keep the 3 minutes/Km pace - the 32nd Km was covered in 3:10 while the 33rd Km took 3:09.  Riri did the most of leading in front, while Okutani did most of the leading for the second group.  Around 35.5Km, Kagika started to lose contact with the second group, and the remaining two members Okutani and Matsumiya fell behind by as much as 12 seconds around 36Km, but came as close as 7 seconds two Km later, and by 39Km, Matsumiya came within six seconds of the leader, but he could not get any closer.

 Off course 

With little over 1Km to go, Riri, who used to run for the Japanese corporate team of NTN, made his move and immediately opened a gap on Hosokawa and Rios.  With 800m to go Riri led by 6 seconds but then he took a wrong turn and when he returned to the course, Rios was just behind him.  However, Riri still had a lot left.

Down the back-straight for the final time, Riri started to open the gap on Rios again and won by three seconds in 2:09:00. Michitaka Hosokawa was third in 2:09:10.

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF


Results 
   JPN unless otherwise noted:
1. Joseph Riri  (KEN)  2:09:00
2. Jose Rios (ESP)  2:09:03
3. Michitaka Hosokawa  2:09:10
4. Wataru Okutani  2:09:13
5. Yuko Matsumiya  2:09:18
6. Takashi Tokunaga 2:10:10
7. Toshiya Katayama  2:10:12
8. Ruggero Perfile (ITA)  2:11:13
9. Shin-ichi Watanabe  2:12:16
10. Atsushi Fujita  2:12:30

Splits
5Km 15:00   Pablo Olmedo
10Km 29:59  14:59 Pablo Olmedo
15Km 45:08  15:09 Pablo Olmedo
20Km 1:00:29 15:21 Pablo Olmedo
Half 1:03:51  Pablo Olmedo
25Km 1:15:28 14:59 Pablo Olmedo
30Km 1:30:17 14:49 Jose Rios
35Km 1:46:04 15:47 Joseph Riri
40Km 2:02:11 16:07 Joseph Riri
Finish 2:09:00 6:49 Joseph Riri

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