Samon Ramadhani of Tanzania wins the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon (© Yohei Kamiyama/Agence SHOT)
Samson Ramadhani of Tanzania sprinted away from William Kiplagat of Kenya in the last 200m and won the 62nd Lake Biwa Marathon. It was the second victory in Japan for the reigning Commonwealth Games champion Ramadhani, having won the Beppu-Oita marathon in 2003. Unable to stay with Ramadhani and Kiplagat in the critical part of the race, Ambesse Tolossa of Ethiopia finished third with 2:11:15.
Osaka selection battle
The race to make the Japanese marathon team for the World Championships team for Osaka became murkier, for the first Japanese in the race, Mitsuru Kubota, ran only 2:12:50 for sixth place. Thus for the two straight qualification races – Tokyo Marathon and Lake Biwa Marathon – nobody qualified for the marathon team automatically.
How the race unfolded
Four pace makers – Luis Jesus, Isaac Macharia, Julius Maina and Benson Cherono – were asked to pace each 5km in around 15:15 to 15:20. However, with temperature rising above 20C, it was not possible to push the pace and therefore the pace stayed moderate during the early stages.
A huge pack passed the first kilometre in 3:04 and the second km in 6:12. The sky was sunny and the temperature at the start was unseasonably warm 17.9C with 49% humidity. At 2.5km fifty-one runners were together in the lead pack, which was reduced to thirty-three runners by 5km (15:27). Then the pack of more than thirty runners stayed together until 20km. The pace picked up a bit from the 5km and the pack passed 10km in 30:42. The day was getting warmer and by 13km, the temperature exceeded 20C. However, the pace slowed again after 10km and the huge pack grew in size. Thirty-seven runners stayed together through 15km (46:16).
The first major casualty was Dmitriy Semenov of Russia, who fell off the pace at 19km. After thirty-three runners passed 20km in 1:02:05 (15:49 for the last 5km), the real racing started. After Luis Jesus, one of the pace setter dropped out, at 20.5km, Tomoo Tsubota, a marathon debutante, went into the front and picked up the pace. As the race progressed and with the temperature rising, the race of attrition started and major contenders started to drop off like flies.
After the half marathon point (1:03:50), Kazutoshi Takatsuka, a 2:08 runner, fell off the pace. By 22km the front pack was reduced to 22 runners. Soon Muneyuki Ojima, winner of the 1998 edition, along with the defending champion Jose Rios of Spain, were also gone from the lead pack. Soon Tadayuki Ojima was also left behind by the lead pack. At 24km, Tomohiro Seto, Shin-ichi Watanabe and Toshihiro Iwasa went to the back of the pack.
At 26km, Benson Cherono dropped out, which left Isaac Macharia as an only pace setter left in the race. By 27km, the lead pack was reduced to seventeen runners.
At 28.4km the front pack was reduced to eleven runners – five domestic runners plus six runners from overseas. Soon Tsubota, who was running near the front since 20km, started to drift back to the middle of the pack. At the front were Africans – Macharia, Kiplagat, Kagika, Ramadhani, and Tolossa. Maase, the only European left in the front pack, was running at the back of the pack.
After the last pace maker, Macharia, left the race at 30km (1:33:04), Kiplagat started to lead the race. At the front, four Africans (Tolossa, Kiplagat, Ramadhani, and Laban Kagika) pushed the pace, while three Japanese (Kurao Umeki, Yuki Abe and Tetsuo Nishimura) and Maase tried to stay with them.
At 31.5km, Umeki was the next casualty. Soon the pack started to stretch out. And then at 31.9km into the race, Laban Kagika, who runs for JFE team in Japan, put on a strong surge to break the race open. Kiplagat, Tolossa and Ramadhani managed to stay with Kagika. The visible gap started to open between the Africans and non-Africans. However, Abe started to bridge the gap, and by 32.6km into the race he was successful. Abe’s brave run only lasted less than one km, however. By 33.5km he again lost contact with the Africans and Maase moved into fifth at 34km.
With Kiplagat, Ramadhani and Tolossa controlling the pace, Kagika fell back at 35.4km. Three Africans took turn in leading.
“Tolossa was running the race like fartlek workout. He led some time and I led other time, but my goal was to stay with him until 200m from the finish,” said Ramadhani.
With 3km to go, Tolossa surged hard. Ramadhani stayed with him while Kiplagat fell off the pace. Five hundred metres later Kiplagat was 15m behind. But soon the pace slowed and Kiplagat was able to re-join the pack. Then with 1500m to go it was Kiplagat’s turn to make his move and Tolossa was completely left behind.
Ramadhani fell off by 10m at one time, but he tried very hard to stay close. With 1km to go, Ramadhani caught up with Kiplagat again. They entered the Ojiyama stadium side by side. During the last 600m on the track, the lead changed a few times. The last lap was like the final lap of a 10,000m race. Ramadhani took the lead for good with the final sprint in the last 200m and won by four seconds.
“It was a very hard race. I had to survive (many surges) to be competitive at the end,” said Ramadhani.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Results: (JPN unless otherwise noted)
1) Samson Ramadhani (TAN) 2:10:43
2) William Kiplagat (KEN) 2:10:47
3) Ambesse Tolossa (ETH) 2:11:15
4) Laban Kagika (KEN) 2:12:36
5) Kamiel Maase (NED) 2:12:40
6) Mitsuru Kubota 2:12:50
7) Yuki Abe 2:13:47
8) Kenjiro Jitsui 2:14:08
9) Tetsuo Nishimura 2:14:22
10) Toshihiro Iwasa 2:14:41
11) Koji Watanabe 2:15:34
12) Daisuke Isomatsu 2:15:39
13) Ken-ichi Kita 2:16:27
14) Koichiro Fukuoka 2:16:50
15) Osamu Nara 2:17:20
16) Shin-ichi Watanabe 2:17:36
Splits
5km 15:27
10km 30:42 (15:15)
15km 46:16 (15:34)
20km 1:02:05 (15:49)
Half M 1:05:30
25km 1:17:32 (15:27)
30km 1:33:04 (15:32)
35km 1:48:41 (15:37)
40km 2:04:19 (15:38)
Finish 2:10:43 (6:24)
