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Ugachi Leads Komazawa to Fuchu Tamagawa Half Marathon Sweep

by Brett Larner

Komazawa University's Tsuyoshi Ugachi led the school's team to a near sweep of the 2008 Fuchu Tamagawa Half Marathon on Nov. 23, winning with a time of 1:04:08 and a margin of 50 seconds over teammate Yusuke Takabayashi. Running in perfect conditions, Komazawa runners, who typically dominate the race held near the university's training grounds, took the top 3 positions and 7 of the top 10 places. Kenyan Daniel Mwangi (Team JAL Ground Service) provided the only serious challenge to the national champion and defending Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa runners, 4th in 1:06:02 after just outleaning Komazawa's Yukinori Ota and Toru Takahashi. Aoyama Gakuin University ekiden team members Soichiro Nishio and Keisuke Ichioka, preparing for their school's first Hakone appearance in 33 years, were 7th and 10th respectively. Nishio and Ichioka will next meet up with Ugachi and the rest of the Komazawa squad on Jan. 2 and 3 in the 2009 Hakone Ekiden.

2008 Fuchu Tamagawa Half Marathon Top Finishers
1. Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:08
2. Yusuke Takabayashi (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:58
3. Jun Watanabe (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:05:08
4. Daniel Mwangi (Team JAL Ground Service) - 1:06:02
5. Yukinori Ota (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:06:02
6. Toru Takahashi (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:06:02
7. Soichiro Nishio (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:06:13
8. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:06:16
9. Kenji Sunahara (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:06:19
10. Keisuke Ichioka (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:07:05

Click here for complete results.

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
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