Skip to main content

Kawauchi 2:11:52 CR in Sydney For Second Marathon Win in 3 Weeks

by Brett Larner
photo by Adrian Miles

Lining up for his sixth marathon of the year after a late Friday night flight, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) turned in his second win in three weeks as he set a 2:11:52 course record to lead a Japanese sweep at the Sept. 16 Sydney Marathon.

Just three weeks after winning the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon in 2:18:38, Kawauchi set off in a small lead pack on pace to break the 2:14:12 Sydney course record set back in 1994.  Splitting 1:06:08 for the first half, he soon dropped Kenyan Felix Kandie and was on his own as he pushed on to run a negative split despite the challenging nature of the Sydney course which some estimates put at two to three minutes slow.  Kawauchi crossed the line with a margin of more than four minutes over Kandie, his time of 2:11:52 taking nearly two and a half minutes off the course record and the third-best time of his career.  Next up Kawauchi will run October's World Half Marathon Championships before pursuing a 2:07 at December's Fukuoka Marathon.

Alongside Kawauchi's win, Japanese runners took the titles in the women's marathon and both the men's and women's races in the half marathon.  Mountain runner Mitsuko Hirose ran a remarkably steady 4 min/km pace in the women's marathon, splitting 1:24:23 on her way to a 2:48:49 win with Yukie Tamura five minutes back in 2nd.  2011 Ichinoseki International Half Marathon winner Takahiro Gunji of Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Komazawa University outran Australians Scott Wescott and Ben St. Lawrence for the men's half in 1:04:19, Natsumi Matsumoto taking the women's honors in 1:15:03.

Update: The same day that Yuki Kawauchi won Sydney his younger brother Koki Kawauchi (Takasaki Keizai Univ.) won the Tazawako Marathon.

2012 Sydney Running Festival
Sydney, Australia, 9/16/12
click here for complete results

Men's Marathon
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 2:11:52 - CR
2. Felix Kandie (Kenya) - 2:16:12
3. Joel Kiprimo Kemboi (Kenya) - 2:18:34

Women's Marathon
1. Mitsuko Hirose (Japan) - 2:48:49
2. Yukie Tamura (Japan) - 2:52:33
3. Risper Kemaiyo (Kenya) - 2:54:04

Men's Half Marathon
1. Takahiro Gunji (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:19
2. Scott Wescott (Australia) - 1:04:47
3. Ben St. Lawrence (Australia) - 1:05:45

Women's Half Marathon
1. Natsumi Matsumoto (Japan) - 1:15:03
2. Sinead Driver (Australia) - 1:16:02
3. Lauren Shelley (Australia) - 1:16:30

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

photo (c) 2012 Adrian Miles
all rights reserved

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...
1 comment
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
12 comments
Read more

10 Meet Records and a National Record at Hyogo Relay Carnival

The grand prix distance events were absent from the program this year at the 73rd Hyogo Relay Carnival , with the top performances in the women's 5000 m and men's 10000 m Asics Challenge races going to steepler Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) in 15:49.48 and Japan-based Kenyan Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) in 28:12.42. But there were a lot of new meet records, and one national record. Ryosuke Kusumi (Shiga) set a T37-class NR of 58.35 m in the para men's 400 m. Kairi Ikeno (Suma Gakuen H.S.) came less than 2 seconds short of a new high school record in the women's 2000 m , beating her own MR from last year by over 3 seconds in 5:55.36, almost 17 seconds ahead of 2nd place. The top 5 all broke or tied the men's high jump meet record, with both Yuto Seko (FAAS) and Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) clearing 2.25 m and Takashi Eto (Kobe Digital Labo), Chao-Hsuan Fu (Taiwan) and Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) clearing 2.20 m. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) won the men...
Post a Comment
Read more