Dmitri Baranovski of Ukraine closes out his win in Fukuoka (© Kazutaka Eguchi/Agence SHOT)
Fukuoka, JapanDmytro Baranovskiy of Ukraine was the surprise winner at the 59th annual Fukuoka International marathon on Sunday afternoon in Fukuoka, which will be the host city of the 2006 World Cross Country Championships.
Huge personal best
Baranovskiy's winning time, 2:08:29, a national record, was very respectable considering the cold rain and strong winds, weather conditions which are not conductive to a fast marathon. Baranovskiy became the 13th fastest runner in the history of the Fukuoka Marathon and also improved his marathon personal best, which stood at 2:11:57 before the race, by nearly three and a half minutes.
Baranovskiy, the 2001 European under-23 champion at 10,000m, made a strong surge at 32Km, after the pace makers finished their duties, to run away from the lead pack that included Julio Rey of Spain, Atsushi Fujita of Japan and Dejene Berhanu of Ethiopia, winning by more than a minute.
Rey, the fastest runner of the season in the field, and Fujita, the course record holder at 2:06:51, fought hard for the runner-up position, but Rey was able to open a gap on Fujita just before entering the Heiwadai stadium and held on to finish second in 2:09:41. Fujita, making a great comeback from the persistent injury problems, finished third, seven seconds behind Rey.
How the race unfolded…
Because of the less than ideal weather conditions, the race started slow. A huge lead pack, led by the pace setters Samson Ramadahni (TAN) and Isaac Macharia (KEN), passed 5Km in 15:46 and 10Km in 31:01. The course turned at 11Km, and so the tail-wind started to help the runners, and naturally the pace picked up. The 5Km segment between 10Km to 15Km was covered in 14:49, and with the faster pace the first major casualty from the lead pack was Guidisa Shentema of Ethiopia at 11Km, followed by Eric Wainaina, two Kilometres later. Two more kilometers and it was Abdelkader El Mouaziz of Morocco, who fell behind the leaders. After passing 20Km in 1:00:28 (15Km to 20Km in 14:38), the next big casualty was a 2004 Olympian Tomoaki Kunichika.
By the half-way point (1:03:32), the lead pack was reduced to eight runners – Macharia, Ramadahni, Rey, Baranovskiy, Berhanu, Fujita, Franck Caldeira of Brazil and Paul Biwott of Kenya. the latter two losing contact with the leaders at 25Km and 30Km respectively.
Caldeira had lost contact by 25km, as had Biwott at 30km the point at which the two pace setters – Macharia and Ramadahni – dropped out of the race. It was then that the real racing began between Baranovskiy, Rey, Fujita and Berhanu.
Surprisingly, against the strong headwind, it was Baranovskiy who made a decisive move to break the race open. Berhanu and Rey tried to cover the move while Fujita fell behind to fourth place. However, Fujita was not finished, and by 36Km, he had caught Rey and had started to chase Berhanu with Rey in tow, though Baranovskiy continued to pull ahead. Fujita and Rey caught and passed Berhanu at 38.6Km, who was unable to keep up with them. Thus the race for the runner-up position came down to Fujita and Rey. Their dual continued until 41.6Km, but it was Rey who prevailed at the end.
At 40Km, Baranovskiy was one minute two seconds ahead of Fujita and Rey, and he extended his lead and won by one minute and twelve seconds from Rey. A marathon debutante, Berhanu, fifth at the 5000m in the Athens Olympic Games, finished in a respectable fourth with 2:11:48. The fastest runner in the field, El Mouaziz, who was left behind by the lead pack before the half way point was steadily moving up during the second half of the race. He was eighth at 30Km, but moved up to sixth by 35Km and then to fifth by 40Km, and finished just 24 seconds behind Berhanu.
“I am very happy to win the Fukuoka marathon. Today’s cold weather was perfect for me, but I could have run a 2:07 marathon if there was less wind,” said Baranovskiy who became the first European winner at the Fukuoka Marathon since 1989 when Manual Mathias of Portugal took the victory.
Baranovskiy, the 2001 European under-23 champion at 10,000m (and second at 5000m), made his marathon debut at the 2003 Frankfurt Marathon, where he was fifth with 2:12:47. The following year Baranovskiy was tenth at the 2004 Hamburg Marathon with 2:12:33. Later in the summer Baranovskiy dropped out of the Olympic Marathon in Athens, but then finished fifth in the 2005 Hamburg Marathon with a new personal best of 2:11:57.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
With assistance from Akihiro Onishi
Results
(weather: temperature 8.9C, humidity 48%, wind 6.2m/s)
Men ONLY
1. Dmytro Baranovskiy (UKR) 2:08:29
2. Julio Rey (ESP) 2:09:41
3. Atsushi Fujita (JPN) 2:09:48
4. Dejene Berhanu (ETH) 2:11:48
5. Abdelkader El Mouaziz (MAR) 2:12:12
6. Tomoaki Kunichika (JPN) 2:13:49
7. Eric Wainaina (KEN) 2:15:18
8. Huw Lobb (GBR) 2:15:27
9. James Wainaina (KEN) 2:17:08
10. Kentaro Ito (JPN) 2:18:43
Splits
5Km 15:46 Samson Ramadahni (TAN)
10Km 31:01 (15:15) Samson Ramadahni (TAN)
15Km 45:50 (14:49) Samson Ramadahni (TAN)
20Km 1:00:28 (14:38) Samson Ramadahni (TAN)
25Km 1:15:24 (14:56) Samson Ramadahni (TAN)
30Km 1:30:33 (15:09) Isaac Macharia (KEN)
35Km 1:45:46 (15:13) Dmytro Baranovskiy (UKR)
40Km 2:01:32 (15:46) Dmytro Baranovskiy (UKR)
Finish 2:08:29 (6:57) Dmytro Baranovskiy (UKR)
