Rios wins Lake Biwa Marathon in debut finish

Jose Rios of Spain won the 59th annual Lake Biwa Marathon in Otsu on Sunday (7 March). In only his second marathon (he did not finish in Rotterdam last year), Rios the European 10,000m bronze medallist, recorded a debut finish time of 2:07:42.

The race was also a qualifying race for the Japanese Olympic Marathon team. Finishing second as the first Japanese was Tadayuki Ojima, who could only finish 7th in Fukuoka Marathon last December.  Thus he kept his Olympic hope alive. Ojima improved his personal best which stood at 2:08:48, recorded in the 2003 Fukuoka Marathon, by 30 seconds. 

The race started at 12:30 PM from Ojiyama stadium in Otsu under quite a bad condition.  It was snowing and the wind was also quite strong. Fortunately for the runners, the bad weather lasted only for 15 minutes after the start.
 
The huge pack of around 70 runners led by three pace setters - Kiprono, Chipu and Jesus - passed 5Km in 15:10.  Soon after one of the pace makers, Kiprono, fell behind, leaving only Abner Chipu and Luis Jesus with the pacing duty. As the weather turned for the better the pace increased and as expected the pack started to dwindle in number, reducing to 37 runners.

By 10Km but Pavel Loskutov, the European marathon medallist had been dropped, but 32 other runners together in the front, the only other major casualty during 10Km (29:55) to 20Km (1:00:20) was Silvio Guerra. In the next 10km, the pack shrunk again with the major casualties were Japhet Kosgei (KEN) at 23Km, Alene Emere (ETH) at 25Km, Yoshiteru Morishita at 26Km and Alberto Juzdado (ESP) at 27Km. 

After 30Km (1:30:42), Chipu, left the race and the real racing started. First, Shin-ichi Watanabe picked up the pace to strung out the field.  Then at 33Km, Yuko Matsumiya, a twin brother of Takayuki Matsumiya, 30Km world record holder, surged.  Ryuji Takei who won this race two years ago was one of the major casualties of this move.

At 35Km seven men - Jose Rios, Tadayuki Ojima, Atsushi Sato, Wilson Onsare, Yuko Matsumiza, Kazutoshi Takatsuka, and Muneyuki Ojima - were together.

However, when Rios surged, Muneyuki Ojima, Takatsuka, Matsumiya in succession fell off the pace, leaving Tadayuki Ojima, Jose Rios, Wilson Onsare and Atsushi Sato in front.

As Rios continued to force the pace Onsare at 37Km and Tadayuki Ojima a 1Km later also lost contact, and Rios was running alone.  By 40Km, Rios led T Ojima by 9 seconds.  A Km later, the gap has grown to 15 seconds and at the end Rios won his debut marathon in 2:07:42, while Ojima finished 36 seconds behind.  Second - Tadayuki Ojima, 2:08:18; third - Wilson Onsare of Kenya, 2:08:33.

"I am very happy to record 2:07,” said Rios who had dropped out of his only other marathon (13 April 2003 in Rotterdam). “The pacemakers did excellent job. Unlike the first half, the wind was much calmer during the last half."

Ojima in second (2:08:18) on the other hand commented "I was not thinking about the time. My goal was to win.  Since I was the first Japanese in the race and set a personal best, the minimum I was hoping for, I am quite content."

"I was very concerned with the weather at the start, but we were quite fortunate to see that the weather improved over the course of the race," concluded Ojima

Team selections

Sato, who finished fourth (2:08:36), a one time national collegiate marathon record holder, was one of the favourites to make the Japanese Olympic team.  It is reported that he has covered over 2500Km in two months leading up to this marathon.  However, his hard training did not pay off this time as Sato, who said, "I set a personal best, but what is important in the race is to win," lost contact with three leaders with little more than 5Km left in the race.

With all the Japanese men's Olympic marathon qualifying races over, the team selection committee has some hard decision making at hand. 

To summarize the results of all qualifying race: Shigeru Aburaya finished fifth in the World Championships marathon in Paris.  Tomoaki Kunichika, Toshinari Suwa and Toshinari Takaoka finished one-two-three with sub 2:08 clocking in Fukuoka Marathon.  Satoshi Osaki finished second with 2:08:46 in Tokyo Marathon, and Tadayuki Ojima finished second in 2:08:18 at Lake Biwa Marathon. The selection committee must choose three from the above list.

Considering his past accomplishments Toshinari Takaoka is by far the best male marathon runner in Japan.  As a triple Asian record holder including the marathon, Takaoka has the best chance for a medal among Japanese men in Athens but unfortunately, by finishing only third, albeit only 7 seconds behind the winner Kunichika, in the Fukuoka marathon, Takaoka's position is at best uncertain.  The team will be announced on March 15.

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Assisted by Akihiro Onishi 

Results:  JPN unless otherwise indicated

Jose Rios (ESP) 2:07:42
Tadayuki Ojima  2:08:18
Wilson Onsare (KEN) 2:08:33
Atsushi Sato 2:08:36
Kazutoshi Takatsuka 2:08:56
Yuko Matsumiza 2:09:25
Shinichi Watanabe2:09:55
Muneyuki Ojima 2:10:07
Tadakatsu Mukae 2:11:01
Ryuji Takei 2:11:42
Kazushi Hara 2:12:11
Masatoshi Oike 2:12:15
Sergei Lukin (RUS) 2:12:27
Yukiyasu Nagao 2:12:31
Pavel Loskutov (EST) 2:12:33
Hiroyuki Fujii 2:12:39
Tadayuki Tsutsumi 2:12:42
Yohei Sato 2:12:49
Yuzo Onishi 2:12:53
Makoto Ogura 2:12:58

Splits:
5Km 15:10 Abner Chipu (RSA)
10Km 29:55 (14:45) Luis Jesus (POR)
15Km 45:06 (15:16) Luis Jesus (POR)
20Km 1:00:20 (15:14) Luis Jesus (POR)
Half  1:03:39 Luis Jesus (POR)
25Km 1:15:25 (15:05) Luis Jesus (POR)
30Km 1:30:42 (15:17) Abner Chipu (RSA)
35Km 1:46:02 (15:20) Jose Rios (ESP)
40Km 2:01:04 (15:02) Jose Rios (ESP)
42.195Km 2:07:42  (6:40) Jose Rios (ESP)