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Onishi, Takezawa and Sugihara Win in East Asian Games, Kano and Miyauchi 2-3 in Women's Half (updated)

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Update: The IAAF has a series of articles summarizing each day of the East Asian Games including the medalists in each event. Click for Day One (800 m, 20 km RW), Day Two (M 5000 m, W 10000 m, W 3000 mSC), Day Three (1500 m, M 10000 m) and Day Four (Half marathon, M 3000 mSC, W 5000 m).

Tomoya Onishi on the way to the win in Hong Kong. Click picture for sanspo.com's East Asian Games photo gallery.

The East Asian Games Half Marathon took place Dec. 13 in Hong Kong. 22 year-old Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei) won the gold medal in the sprint-finish men's race in a time of 1:06:05. World Championships women's marathon 7th place finisher Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) was 2nd in the women's half marathon in 1:12:03 with teammate Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) close behind in 3rd.

Kano lacked her usual frontrunning race pattern, losing out to a North Korean athlete on the last lap of the track. "That wasn't how I wanted to race," she said unhappily afterwards. "Somebody behind me kept kicking my legs." Kano planned to take off in the later stages of the race but, the unlucky 31 year old veteran said, "It was a lot hotter and hillier than I expected and it was just too tough. I guess I was just a pacemaker today."

On the track on Japan scored a double win in the men's and women's 10000 m. Kensuke Takahashi (23, Team S&B) won the Dec. 12 men's race in 30:18.91 with a blazing last 100 m kick to put away a Chinese athlete. "I decided just to wait until the end to settle things," said Takezawa. "The goal here was only to win, so that's the way I ran." At 5000 m the Chinese runner briefly pulled away from him, but Takezawa said, "I was just making controlled pace changes to play with his psychology."

In the women's 10000 m on Dec. 11 Kayo Sugihara (26, Team Denso), the bronze medalist from the 2006 Asian Games 5000 m, won gold in a time of 33:55.43. Sugihara dropped her nearest competitor, a Chinese runner, at 6000 m and ran on alone to the finish to take her first victory in an international competition. "It's a great way to end the year, and a good step towards my first marathon" she said with a bright smile after the race. Sugahara will debut at March's Nagoya International Women's Marathon.

http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/sports/205239.html
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/091213/spg0912131610003-n1.htm
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/091212/spg0912122156002-n1.htm
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/091211/spg0912111634004-n1.htm
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