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Bat-Ochir, Yoshitomi Win Hofu Yomiuri Marathon

by Brett Larner

The worldwide marathon season came to a close for the year with the Dec. 19 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon. Coming off a top-10 finish at September's Berlin Marathon, Mongolian ace Serod Bat-Ochir took his first win in three straight Hofu appearances. Bat-Ochir sat in a large pack behind pacemaker Dishon Karukwa (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) through the early stages of the race until it whittled down to three by 30 km. Pushing ahead, he dropped Kenyan debutant Samuel Ganga (Team Mazda) and by 35 km had a three-second gap on Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC). From there it was smooth sailing all the way to the finish. Ganga dropped out before 40 km, leaving Ito free in 2nd and challenged only by teammate Hiroyuki Kamiguchi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), who ran a patient race to close strongly and take 3rd.

Although Hofu has regularly had second-tier women, its official women's division only opened last year. Hiroko Yoshitomi (Saga T&F Assoc.) put pressure on past winners Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) and Noriko Hirao (First Dream AC) throughout the race, easily breaking away to win in a course record 2:38:01.

2010 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon
click here for complete results
Men
1. Serod Bat-Ochir (Mongolia) - 2:14:49
2. Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:15:42
3. Hiroyuki Kamiguchi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:15:53
4. Hirotaka Honda (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:19:30
5. Takashi Yamauchi (Team Aisan Kogyo) - 2:19:50

Women
1. Hiroko Yoshitomi (Saga T&F Assoc.) - 2:38:01 - CR
2. Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) - 2:40:49
3. Noriko Hirao (First Dream AC) - 2:51:40
4. Emiko Hirai (Hirakata Masters AC) - 2:52:31
5. Nana Higashi (Daiwa AC) - 2:53:48

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Yes Bat-ochir is getting into some competition thing lately. He has won Brighton marathon in UK in April. Could anyone post Hofu marathon video in youtube? I searched all over about this marathon and only your blog has real details about this marathon.

UB guy
December 23, 2010 at 11:49 AM
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