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Kenyan XC Champ Gideon Ngatuny to Debut at Tokyo Marathon

by Brett Larner

2010 national champions Team Nissin Shokuhin have announced that the team's star, 2008 Kenyan XC national champion Gideon Ngatuny, will run his marathon debut at the Feb. 27 Tokyo Marathon. Ngatuny, who holds a half marathon best of 59:50 and a 10000 m best of 27:01.83, has in the last two years progressively moved up in distance, with wins at the 2008 and 2009 Nagoya Half Marathon and the 2009 Sapporo International Half Marathon and a turn as a pacemaker at the 2010 London Marathon.

Ngatuny joins world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), 2010 double Sapporo International Half Marathon and Hokkaido Marathon winner Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and New Year Ekiden Fifth Stage winner Keita Akiba (Team Komori Corp.) among the athletes to have already publicly declared their participation in what looks to be the highest-level Tokyo Marathon field to date.

Gideon Ngatuny - Kenya
born 10/10/86
half marathon: 59:50 (Nagoya, 2009)
10000 m: 27:01.83 (Tendo, 2009)
5000 m: 13:11.81 (Yokohama, 2008)

Major Results:
3rd, New Year Ekiden 2nd Stage (8.3 km), 1/1/11 - 22:30
7th, Lisboa Half Marathon, 3/21/10 - 1:01:07
1st, Nagoya Half Marathon, 11/23/09 - 59:50 - CR
1st, Sapporo Int'l Half Marathon, 7/5/09 - 1:00:39
1st, Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 12/8/08 - 45:15
1st, Nagoya Half Marathon, 11/24/08 - 1:00:11
7th, World XC Championships, Edinburgh, 3/30/08 - 35:16
1st, Kenyan National XC Championships, 2008
1st, Kenyan Prisons XC Championships, 2008
1st, New Year Ekiden 1st Stage (11.3 km), 1/1/08 - 30:59
4th, World XC Championships, Mombasa, 3/24/07 - 36:43

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
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