Hokkaido, JapanThe marathon debutante Kaori Yoshida won the women’s division of the 2006 Hokkaido Marathon by nearly six minutes in 2:32:53. Tomonori Watanabe won the men’s race in 2:17:51. The times were relatively slow, but the day was hot with the mercury hitting 30C during the race.
WOMEN
For women the race was one of the qualifying races for the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan, and thus Yoshida is now one of the candidates for the Japanese marathon team for the Worlds. It all depends on what happen at the four other qualifying races – Tokyo Women’s Marathon, Asian Games, Osaka Ladies Marathon and Nagoya Women’s Marathon.
Yoshida took a command of the race early. After threesome of Yoshida, Shimokawa and Horie passed 5Km in 18:08 and 10Km in 35:48, Yoshida covered 13th Km in 3:27 and 14th Km in 3:29 and she was running alone in front. By 15Km, Yoshida was 16 seconds ahead of the second place Horie. Her lead was extended to a minute and ten seconds by 20Km, and over two minutes by 25Km. Yoshida won her debut marathon easily by nearly six minutes in 2:32:53.
“I felt very comfortable at the beginning, but perhaps because I was short on training, my legs felt heavy near the end of the race.” When asked how she felt about her marathon debut, Yoshida said, “I was so happy to run my first marathon, I was not nervous about my debut race.”
Masako Chiba, two time bronze medalist at the World Championships, finished 11th in 2:48:58. A day before the race, Chiba announced that she was retiring as an elite competitor. Two Kyocera runners – Yumiko Hara and Masami Sakata – pulled out of the race just a day before the race.
MEN
The defending champion Tomonori Watanabe won the men’s division by two seconds from his Asahi Kasei teammate Mitsuru Kubota. The time was relatively slow 2:17:51. Because men’s race was not a World Championships qualifier, Watanabe needs to run Fukuaoka, Tokyo or Lake Biwa Marathon to qualify for the Japanese marathon team for Osaka. “Because the next World Championships are in Osaka, I would like to run well at the qualifying race and make the team,” said Watanabe after the race.
The lead pack broke up early in the race. After the lead pack passed 3Km in 10:05, Toshihiro Iwasa took over the lead at 4.1Km and started to push the pace. After passing 5Km in 16:17, Iwasa started to break away. By 10Km, Iwasa led by 53 seconds. Iwasa continued to stretch his lead and led by a minute and 31 seconds at 15Km. However, his lead started to shrink slowly in the middle stage of the race, and by 30Km had shrunk to mere 34 seconds. At 31.8Km, Iwasa was caught and passed by pack of four runners – Yusuke Kataoka, Tomonori Watanabe, Mitsuru Kubota and Terumasa Okamura. Soon Okamura lost contact with the leaders. Kataoka also lost contact with the leader at 40Km.
So the race came down to two Asahi Kasei runners – Watanabe and Kubota. They ran together until the last 50m when Watanabe unleashed his kick to win in 2:17:51.
“I like hot weather race, but it was too hot today. I felt comfortable in the beginning but the race felt harder after it became a three-man race (at 32Km)” said Watanabe after the race. Two Kenyans did not fare well. While John Kagwe finished disappointing eighth in 2:23:24, Eric Wainaina was another minute and 33 seconds behind in 13th place.
Ken Nakamura for IAAF
With Assistance from Akihiro Onishi
Weather at the start: temperature 30.8C, humidity 43%
Results:
Men
1) Tomonori Watanabe 2:17:51
2) Mitsuru Kubota 2:17:53
3) Yusuke Kataoka 2:18:16
4) Takahiro Saeki 2:20:14
5) Yoshichika Yamada 2:21:16
6) Manabu Nishida 2:22:16
7) Mitsuaki Maruyama 2:23:02
8) John Kagwe (KEN) 2:23:24
…
13) Eric Wainaina (KEN) 2:24:57
Women
1) Kaori Yoshida 2:32:53
2) Mai Tagami 2:38:52
3) Sachiyo Yamada 2:39:15
4) Yoshimi Hoshino 2:42:23
5) Tomoko Shimokawa 2:4301
6) Chihiro Tanaka 2:43:41
7) Megumi Takeuchi 2:43:55
8) Akiko Yamaguchi 2:43:59
9) Anastasia Ndereba (KEN) 2:45:52
…
11) Masako Chiba 2:48:58
Split for Watanabe
5Km 16:25
10Km 32:13 (15:48)
15Km 48:17 (16:04)
20Km 1:04:09 (15:52)
25Km 1:20:20 (16:11)
30Km 1:36:48 (16:28)
35Km 1:53:27 (16:39)
40Km 2:10:46 (17:19)
Finish 2:17:51 (7:05)
Split for Yoshida
5Km 18:08
10Km 35:48 (17:40)
15Km 53:13 (17:25)
20Km 1:10:46 (17:33)
25Km 1:28:29 (17:43)
30Km 1:46:43 (18:14)
35Km 2:05:26 (18:43)
40Km 2:24:35 (19:09)
Finish 2:32:53 (8:18)
