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Shimoju Wins Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon

by Brett Larner

2008 Kumanichi 30 km winner Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica Minolta) continues to edge upward in distance, taking a win at the 48th Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon on Feb. 14. Traditionally a development race for younger runners, this year Nobeoka stayed in character as first-timers took 7 of the top 10 places with relatively inexperienced men clocking PBs for the top 3 spots.

Shimoju ran the first 30 km tight in the first pack. When pacemaker Tomoyuki Sato (Team Asahi Kasei) dropped out at 30 km after maintaining a steady pace of 3:07/km there were still six men in the lead pack. Shimoju immediately went into the lead, but it wasn't that he picked up the pace so much as that everyone else fell away. First-timer Norihiro Nomiya (Team Toyota) initially went with him but by 40 km was a minute behind. Shimoju finished hard to win easily in a new PB of 2:12:18 with a 1:34 margin of victory. Nomiya fell to 4th, the top debutant in 2:14:36. Nomiya was overtaken by Fumiyuki Watanabe (Team Asahi Kasei) and Takanori Ide (Team Kyudenko), both of whom recorded PBs in rounding out the top three.

2010 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon Top Finishers
click here for detailed results with splits
1. Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:12:18 - PB
2. Fumiyuki Watanabe (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:13:52 - PB
3. Takanori Ide (Team Kyudenko) - 2:14:11 - PB
4. Norihiro Nomiya (Team Toyota) - 2:14:36 - debut
5. Kenji Higashino (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:15:42 - debut
6. Yuki Mori (Team Sumco Techxiv) - 2:16:24 - debut
7. Kenichi Kawano (Teikyo Univ.) - 2:19:51 - debut
8. Masaya Fujita (Team JFE Steel) - 2:21:24 - debut
9. Takayuki Tagami (Team Kyudenko) - 2:21:39 - debut
10. Teppei Suegami (Team YKK) - 2:21:54 - debut

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
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