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Ota and Tominaga Take Ichinoseki International Half Marathon Wins

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http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/sports/2008sports/m09/spo0809291.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The 27th Ichinoseki International Half Marathon took place Sept. 28 in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, starting outside Ichinoseki city hall and covering a 21.0975 km course. Komazawa University senior Yukinori Ota won the men's race in 1:04:26 after breaking from the lead pack with 4 km to go in the race. Komazawa alumnus Akira Fujii, now of Team Aisan, was 2nd in 1:04:52. Kyoko Fukunaga of Amino Vital AC won the women's race in 1:17:15.

Leading a pack of four at the 16 km mark, Fujii launched a spurt to break away. Ota commented afterwards that at this point he had thought, "If I fall behind now it's over." He picked up his pace in response to Fujii's move, increasing from 3 min/km to 2:50/km and taking the lead at 17 km. Fujii could not match his speed and finished 26 seconds behind.

Ota, who anchored the Komazawa team's winning run at this year's Hakone Ekiden, was 3rd at last year's Ichinoseki Half after fading in the later stages of the race and missing 2nd place by 10 seconds. In his first year at Komazawa he also ran on the school's Hakone team together with Fujii. Of the Ichinoseki Half Ota said, "Your placing at this race means more than the time. It was sweet to win and I'm really satisfied that I was able to keep control of my pace all the way to the end."

1306 runners from 25 prefectures participated in Ichinoseki's half marathon, 10 km and 5 km races along with entrants from America and South Korea. Temperatures along the course averaged 18 degrees.

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