Abera takes third Fukuoka win

Ethiopia's reigning World and Olympic Champion Gezahegne Abera won today’s Fukuoka International Marathon. For the third time in the last four years his blazing kick on the track brought him a narrow but decisive victory.

The race was almost an identical copy of last year's race. Last year, the race turned out to be a thrilling duel between Abera and Koji Shimizu, with the former unleashing his blazing kick with 200m to go and winning by three seconds.

This year another thrilling duel ensued, this time between Abera and Tsuyoshi Ogata. Abera unleashed his attack with 150m go to and won by two seconds.** Unfortunately, because the winning time - 2:09:13 - was quite modest, it is unlikely that he will rank high in the year's world marathon ranking.

At the pre-race press conference Ogata had said "this is my race of redemption," citing his two marathon disappointments - 1999 Fukuoka where he finished 24th in 2:15:22, and 2002 London where he was 34th in 2:25:03. Certainly judging from his latest ekiden run (52:21 for a hilly 17.9km stage record) Ogata appeared to be ready for a fast marathon.

However, his comments before the race, "I am in OK shape.  I will just go with the leaders," did not exactly denote confidence. He perhaps had learned to be a little more modest in his pre-race comments after his experience in the 2001 Tokyo Marathon, when after predicting a 2:07 marathon, he hit the wall hard and dropped out at 39Km.

Today’s race started in near ideal conditions of 14C and a cloudy sky, but the sun soon broke through and temperatures started to rise. Armand Quintanilla of Mexico and Eliud Lagat of Kenya did most of the pace making chores. They took the lead pack in modest a 15:17 for the first 5Km, but then promptly picked up the pace and the lead pack of approximately 20 runners passed 10Km in 30:18.

Sadly the first major casualty of the race came early. Takayuki Inubushi, a former national record holder at 2:06:57 who was already in trouble by 10Km, dropped out with an upper leg problem just after 15km.

After passing the half marathon in 1:03:57, the pace started to slacken off, and after the designated pace setters dropped out, it got slower. Although Takeshi Hamano, Nobuyuki Sato and then Estonia’s Pavel Loskutov took turn leading the pack, the pace slowed even more; the 5Km leading up to 30Km took 15:42.

At the turn-around point in the course (approx. 31.7km), a pack of seven runners were led by Kenya’s Eric Wainaina but immediately afterwards Tsuyoshi Ogata surged.

Abera responded, but Wainaina, Loskutov, and Sato (later to drop out) were left behind. Wainaina eventually caught up with Ogata and Abera, but Ogata kept the pressure up by running sub 3 minutes kilometres for the 33rd and 34th Km to once again leave Abera and Wainaina behind.

While once again Abera caught up with Ogata just before 35Km, Wainaina was out of contention, and by 36Km was 40m behind.

So it turned into a two man race, just like a year ago. For the next 7Km Abera and Ogata ran together. On the uphill stretch leading to the stadium, Abera attacked, and Ogata had to work hard to stay with the Olympic Champion. They entered the Heiwadai stadium together for the final 500m, but for anybody who knows about Abera's sprinting ability the race was affectively already over. The only question was when would Abera make his move? It happened with 150m to go, when Abera unleashed his blistering trade mark kick and left Ogata behind, just like he had left Shimizu a year ago. Abera won in 2:09:13 and became the third time winner of this prestigious marathon.

Next year, Abera will have a chance to join Frank Shorter and Toshihiko Seko as the only four-time winners. He will no doubt have a much tougher competition next year on December 7, as both Toshinari Takaoka, an Asian marathon record holder (2:06:16) and Atsushi Fujita, a former Asian record (2:06:51) holder have already announced their intention to run in their attempt to make a Japanese Olympic marathon team.

Ken Nakamura for the IAAF

Results (Unofficial): 
1)  Gezahegne Abera  (ETH) 2:09:13
2)  Tsuyoshi Ogata  (JPN) 2:09:15
3)  Eric Wainaina (KEN) 2:10:08
4)  Pavel Loskutov  (EST) 2:10:14
5)  Toshio Mano (JPN) 2:12:14
6)  John Nada Saya (TAN) 2:13:01
7)  Larbi Zeroual (FRA) 2:15:02
8)  Tomoaki Kunichika (JPN) 2:15:59

Splits  (Unofficial):
5Km     15:17
10Km    30:18  (15:01)
15Km    45:29  (15:11)
20Km    1:00:34 (15:05)
Half       1:03:57
25Km    1:16:04  (15:30)
30Km    1:31:46   (15:42) 
35Km    1:47:02  (15:16)
40Km    2:02:25  (15:23)
Finish    2:09:13

** As the first Japanese in the race with sub 2:10 clocking, the runner up Tsuyoshi Ogata automatically qualified for the World Championships marathon team.