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Yoshida Leads Japanese Contingent With 4th Place Finish in Great Australian Run

by Brett Larner
photo of Kaori Yoshida in Albuquerque courtesy of John Schrup

In training for the Dec. 14 Honolulu Marathon, Kaori Yoshida (Second Wind AC) was the top-placing Japanese competitor at the Nov. 30 Great Australian Run in Melbourne, Australia, a new 15 km road event which attracted some of the top names in international distance running. Yoshida led a chase pack of four behind Olympic marathon silver medalist Catherine Ndereba of Kenya through 10 km in 34:26 before falling behind Kiwi Alica Mason and Australian Lisa Weightman. Ndereba took the win in 50:43, Yoshida clocking 51:44. Yoshida beat Olympic marathon gold medalist Constantina Dita of Romania by 48 seconds. Further back, Megumi Oshima (Team Shimamura) was 11th in 56:13.

In the men's competition, Team Honda fielded two runners, ace Seigo Ikegami and captain Suehiro Ishikawa. Ikegami spent most of the race in the third pack, while Ishikawa sat in the fourth pack. Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia won in 42:40, with Ikegami 9th in 44:44 and Ishikawa 14th in 45:59.

Complete results for the Great Australian Run are available here.

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
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Anonymous said…
Kaori Yoshida is one of the nicest people that you could ever meet, very friendly and outgoing. Glad to see that she ran extremely well in Australia.

It should be pointed out that she also won the Casablanca marathon in Morocco last month (2:31).
December 1, 2008 at 8:45 AM
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