K. Ken Nakamura for IAAF
On February 4, 23 years old Takayuki Nishida won the 50th Beppu-Oita marathon in 2:08:45, thus automatically qualifying for the World Championships marathon team. It was more than five minutes improvement of his previous marathon best. He will join his former college team-mate Atsushi Fujita who won the 2000 Fukuoka marathon in a national record time.
For Nishida, it was his third marathon. In March of 1999, after setting a collegiate 30Km best (1:30:09, a 12 seconds improvement of the previous record held by Atsushi Fujita) in Kumanichi 30Km, he made a marathon debut at the Collegiate marathon championships in Sasayama. With the second place finish (2:17:43) in the collegiate championships, Nishida was selected for the World University Games’ team where he won a silver medal at the half marathon. The following year, for the final race as a collegian, he ran his second marathon in the 2000 Lake Biwa marathon. Although he stayed with the leaders until 30Km, he finished a disappointing 13th in 2:13:46, a far cry from his goal of 2:11.
Nishida runs for S&B Foods track team, and is coached by Toshihiko Seko, a legendary marathon runner in the late 70’s to mid 80’s. He became the first runner from S&B Foods to win a major marathon since 1988, the year Seko won the Lake Biwa marathon. Nishida also became the first runner to win the major marathon under Seko’s coaching. It was reported that to mentally prepare for the Beppu marathon, Nishida watched the video tape of Fujita’s national record run at the Fukuoka marathon more than 10 times.
Because the race was designated as one of the qualifying race for the World Championships marathon team, top Japanese runners were among the starters. The defending champion Kazutaka Enoki was jointed by his team-mate Shinji Kawashima, an Olympian. Toshihiro Iwasa, a team-mate of Takayuki Inubushi was making a marathon debut, while Takayuki Nishida, a silver medallist at the World University Games half marathon was running his third marathon.
The race started under cold rainy weather with Gert Thys in the lead. Originally, Dionicio Ceron, the 1992 Beppu marathon champion and the course record holder was invited to the race. But less than a week before the race, he was replaced with Gert Thys of South Africa, who was running his second marathon in two month, having run December’s Fukuoka marathon.
With Thys in the lead most of the time, the race proceeded with a steady pace of 5Km in 15:12, 10Km in 30:26 (15:14), 15Km in 45:34 (15:08) and 20Km in 1:00:50 (15:16).
The defending champion Kazutaka Enoki was an early casualty. He lost contact with the lead pack early - around 10Km - and dropped out by 32Km.
The race of attrition continued and around 25Km (1:15:59), four runners - Thys, Nishida, Lima and Kawashima - broke away from the lead pack. As the pace picked up, Shinji Kawashima, just before 26Km turn around point, was the first to lose contact with the leader. Lima of Brazil was the next to go, just before 30Km.
Even though he lost contact with Nishida and Thys several times, Lima tenaciously regained contact each time. However, by 30Km (1:30:58), Lima was gone for good, and for the next two Km Nishida and Thys run together until 32.5Km when Nishida left tiring Thys behind.
Running alone for the last 10Km, Nishida passed 35Km in 1:46:02 (15:04), and 40Km in 2:02:45 (15:43) before finishing in 2:08:45. It was the third fastest performance in the fifty year history of the marathon behind Thys’s 2:08:30 (1996) and Ceron’s 2:08:36 (1992).
Lima of Brazil was second in 2:10:02 and Shinji Kawashima third in 2:10:36. Shigekatsu Kondo, Nishida’s teammate in the S&B Foods track team finished fourth. In his seventh career marathon, Kondo improved his marathon PR by more than 3 minutes to 2:11:14. Toshihiro Iwasa, a teammate of Takayuki Inubushi at Otsuka Pharmaceutical track team, was fifth in 2:12:35 in his marathon debut. In the sixth place, Daisuke Tokunaga who represented Japan in the 1995 World Championships ran his 26th and the final marathon of his career.
Weather: Rain 5.7C, 83% humidity, South West wind 2.4m/s
1) Takayuki Nishida 2:08:45
2) Vanderlei Lima (BRA) 2:10:02
3) Shinji Kawashima 2:10:36
4) Shigekatsu Kondo 2:11:14
5) Toshihiro Iwasa 2:12:35
6) Daisuke Tokunaga 2:13:14
Olympic Marathon Champion, Naoko Takahashi runs her first race since the Olympics in Marugame
On February 4 in Marugame in the island of Shikoku, the Olympic marathon champion Naoko Takahashi ran her first race since the Olympics.
Before the race, it was reported that her goal for the race was a modest 1:20 for the half marathon. Yoshio Koide, Takahashi’s coach estimated that 1:15 half marathon is all we should expect from Takahashi who only began training in late-January. Because of her lack of training she lost contact with the lead pack at 6Km, however, she ran better than expected and finished 8th in 1:12:40 in the 55th Marugame half marathon. An estimated 120 thousand spectators - greater than Marugame’s population - lined up along the course was a testament toTakahashi’s popularity in Japan.
Ikumi Nagayama who broke away from the lead pack at 12Km won the women’s race in the course record time of 1:09:28 The previous course record, 1:09:57, was set last year by Rie Ueno, a 1999 World University Game’s champion at the 5000m.
Nagayama is planning to make her marathon debut in five weeks in the Nagoya women’s marathon, and because of her track credentials - 15:20.48 for the 5000m and 31:55.08 for the 10,000m - much is anticipated for her marathon debut.
The fourth place finisher Kazumi Matsuo, the 2000 Berlin marathon champion is also expected to run in Nagoya, the final qualifying race for the 2001 World Championships marathon team.
In the men’s race, two alumni of Juntendo university, Hidemori Noguchi and a national half marathon record holder Ken-ichi Takahashi broke away from the pack around 12Km and ran together for the next 9Km. However, on the final straight in the stadium, Ken-ichi Takahashi did not attempt to match the younger runner’s finishing kick.
For Takahashi this was a final tune up race for the Tokyo Marathon in two weeks (February 18) and winning this half marathon was not important for him. Remembering that Noguchi had said, in a pre-race interview, that he would like to win this race, Takahashi let the younger runner win. For Takahashi, the king of half marathon Japan, it is more important to show what he can do at the more prestigious marathon distance in two weeks.
Men
1) Hidemori Noguchi 1:02:28
2) Ken-ichi Takahashi 1:02:29
3) Tsuyoshi Ogata 1:02:51
4) Francis Mwihia (KEN) 1:03:01
5) Kenji Noguchi 1:03:04
6) Tomonori Michikata 1:03:13
7) Hiroaki Takeda 1:03:29
8) Kanji Moriso 1:03:32
9) Kazuhiro Fujii 1:03:33
10) Jun Hashimoto 1:03:39
11) Mitsuhiro Miyahara 1:04:02
Women
1) Ikumi Nagayama 1:09:28
2) Nami Kurosawa 1:10:10
3) Aki Fujikawa 1:10:24
4) Kazumi Matsuo 1:10:29
5) Takami Nishiyama 1:11:07
6) Yukari Komatsu 1:11:09
7) Ai Yamamoto 1:11:16
8) Naoko Takahashi 1:12:40
9) Masako Koide 1:13:40
10) Reiko Uchida 1:14:16
11) Mami Yamashita 1:15:21
12) Yuko Manabe 1:15:33
