K. Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
3 February 2002 -Sammy Korir, who has run five sub 2:09 marathons in his last seven
starts, won the 51st annual Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in 2:11:45, thus
becoming the first Kenyan to win in Beppu. Finishing second was Daniel Njenga, a former
world junior record holder at 3000mSC (8:19.21); it was the second marathon in two month
for Njenga, having run (2:20:58) in the 2001 Fukuoka marathon in December.
In its 51 years history, Beppu-Oita marathon was the site of many memorable performances. Three times, it was the site of the Japanese national best for the marathon. First in 1963, a year before the Tokyo Olympics, Toru Terasawa recorded 2:15:15.8, fractionally faster than the existing world best (2:15.16.2) set by Abebe Bikila in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Two years later in 1965, Terasawa recorded another national best, 2:14:38 on the out and back course from Beppu to Oita. Thirteen years later in 1978, Shigeru Soh recorded 2:09:05.6, the second fastest marathon in history. In the process, Soh recorded five consecutive sub 15minutes 5Km splits, and was ahead of the world best pace until 40Km. He later recalled that he never took any drink during the race, and speculated that had he taken some fluids along the way, he might have set the world best.
But there were other memorable moments in Beppu. In 1991, Koichi Morishita, a future Olympic marathon silver medallist made his marathon debut in Beppu. He won the race in 2:08:53, still the national marathon debut record. A year later, Hwang Young-Jo, the man who dueled with Morishita on the streets of Barcelona made a great impression on the Japanese fans when he finished second to Dionicio Ceron in 2:08:47. Shigeru Soh who was coaching Morishita at the time went as far as to say that the race for the Olympic gold might be between Morishita and Hwang.
Among the race invitees this year were Sammy Korir, Ronaldo Da Costa who recorded the world marathon best in the 1998 Berlin marathon, Gert Thys who set the course record of 2:08:30 in 1996, Eder Moreno Fialho who won in 1999, and Luis Novo who was fourth at the 1999 World Championships in Sevilla. In the pre-race interview, da Costa who has not done anything significant in the last three years showed his confidence citing his consistent 200Km/week training, while Korir the favorite told of his hope of improving his personal best.
The Japanese invitees were quite weak, especially after the last minute withdrawal of a former national best holder, Takayuki Inubushi, due to injury. The top Japanese were Kenjiro Jitsui and Nozomi Saho. Jitsui was the 1996 Olympian with personal best of 2:08:50, but he has not run a good marathon since 1998. Saho who runs for Asahi Kasei track team was quite a promising young runner who recorded 27:58.47 10,000m as a 20 years old, and run the 10,000m in the 1993 World Championships. He recorded 2:08:47 marathon in the 1997 Fukuoka Marathon and followed it up with 2:09:23 in the 1998 Rotterdam marathon. However, he has not done anything significant in three years because of injury, and announced that this will be the last marathon of his career. “When I heard from Saho that he has decided to retire, the day he ran a sub 28:00 10,000m as a 20 years old came back to my mind. His retirement before his 30 th birthday made me quite sad. I have seen his struggle with injuries for three years. Because I know one must be fit both physically and mentally to compete at the highest level, I could not start to convince him to continue,” said Mitsuyo Kusu a track team manager for Asahi Kasei.
Unlike last year when this race was a selection race for the World Championships in Edmonton, nothing significant was on the line this year. Soh who coaches at Asahi Kasei track team speculated that because of such circumstance, it would be a perfect opportunity to go for fast time. As he predicted, the pace was ahead of the course record pace beyond 30Km. Unfortunately, the race slowed down too much near the end.
On quite a windy day, Gert Thys, who is a regular at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, lead the race initially. The original course of Beppu-Oita marathon started in Beppu and run south before turned around in Oita. Several years ago, in order to take advantage of the prevailing wind (from the north) in the last half of the race, the course was changed to starts in Oita with turn around in Beppu. The lead pack which consisted of ten runners at 5Km (15:08) was reduced to nine by 10Km (30:23), and then to eight when Kenjiro Jitsui who started the race despite suffering from fever lost contact at 12Km; he dropped out after 18Km. He was not the only major contender to drop out. Ronald da Costa also dropped out after the half way mark.
The real racing started when Daniel Njenga, a former steeplechaser, surged around 14.5Km. A Km later Njenga was 12 seconds ahead of the lead pack, which split up around 18.5Km. Njenga continued to push the pace despite quite a strong head wind. He covered 15Km to 20Km in 14:55. By 20Km (1:00:30), Njenga was 27 seconds ahead of the course record pace. While the chase pack reduced to a single runner, Korir, by 22Km, Njenga continued to push the pace, covering the next 10Km in 30 minutes and 3 seconds.
After the course turned around at 25Km, Sammy Korir started to give honest chase to Njenga, and the gap started to close. Korir covered the next 5Km in an incredible 14:33. Although, Njenga was still 38seconds ahead of the course record pace at 30Km (1:30:34), the gap was closing fast and finally at 32Km Korir caught Njenga. Although Korir slowed down after 35Km, he continued to pull ahead of Njenga and won in 2:11:45, nearly one minute ahead of Njenga.
The first Japanese was Takayuki Shimazaki, who was 10th in Beijing in 2001, while Nozomi Saho finished his final marathon in fourth place. It is quite unfortunate that one of the most promising young runners had to retire at the age of 28.
Results (Weather: temperature 11C, humidity 42%, wind 3.5m/s):
1) Sammy Korir (KEN) 2:11:45
2) Daniel Njenga (KEN) 2:12:43
3) Takayuki Shimazaki 2:13:49
4) Nozomi Saho 2:15:20
5) Takashi Matsuyama 2:15:31
6) Hiroaki Takeda 2:15:44
7) Keitaro Murase 2:16:26
8) Yoichi Higuma 2:17:20
9) Luis Novo (POR) 2:19:35
10) Yoichi Kamiyama 2:20:46
Splits for Leader
5Km 15:08
10Km 30:23 (15:15)
15Km 45:36 (15:13)
20Km 1:00:31 (14:55)
Half 1:03:46 25Km 1:15:32 (15:01)
30Km 1:30:34 (15:02)
35Km 1:46:04 (15:30)
40Km 2:02:54 (16:50)
42.195K 2:11:45 (8:51)
Splits for Korir
5Km 15:09
10Km 30:23 (15:14)
15Km 45:45 (15:22)
20Km 1:01:12 (15:27)
Half 1:04:31
25Km 1:16:23 (15:11)
30Km 1:30:56 (14:33)
35Km 1:46:04 (15:08)
40Km 2:02:54 (16:50)
42.195K 2:11:54 (8:51)
