Skip to main content

Kipruto Wins Cold Lake Biwa in 2:08:34, Fujiwara 4th in 2:08:51

by Brett Larner

A cold northern wind kept the 68th running of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon slower than planned, but Kenyan winner Vincent Kipruto's 2:08:34 meant the race stayed tight and exciting until the last corner of the track, where Kipruto outkicked Ethiopian Tariku Jufar to take it by 3 seconds.  Longtime Japan resident James Mwangi (Team NTN) was 3rd in 2:08:48 in his final race before moving back to Kenya, while 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) cleared 2:09 for the first time since his 2003 debut and collegiate national record 2:08:12, taking 4th in 2:08:51 and getting on to the short list for the Moscow World Championships team.

Twin pacers Kota and Kenta Otani (Team JFE Steel) tried to get things going over the first 15 km, but accompanied only by the debuting Shinobu Kubota (Komazawa Univ.) they were left looking over their shoulders until they finished their stint up front.  The pace slowed again after their departure, but a 2:52 surge at 22 km by Jufar shook up the lead pack of 49 in a hurry.  Things soon regrouped, but Jufar's move got rid of roughly a third of the competition as the race began to get serious.  #2-ranked Peter Kirui (Kenya) was a surprise casualty, losing touch after 25 km, catching up again, then falling back once more before dropping out at 29 km.

Kipruto took charge when the last of the pacers stopped at 30 km, his sustained surge steadily thinning the numbers.  With 10 km to go it was down to 7, Kipruto and Mwangi up front with Jufar and Fujiwara's teammate Suehiro Ishikawa (Team Honda) in the front row and Fujiwara, London Olympian Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) and relative unknown Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) right behind.  Fujiwara went to the front 2 km later, getting a gap on Matsumura and Mwangi.  Both fought their way back, and at 37 km Mwangi and Kipruto attacked and dropped Matsumura and Yamamoto.

The five men left stuck together a short while, but the sustained pace of the two leaders was too much for 2:11 man Ishikawa, and shortly after he lost touch Fujiwara also began to slip, then Mwangi.  At 40 km Jufar made a move, but Kipruto was ready and answered.  Onto the track together, Jufar moved again with 400 m to go.  Again Kipruto was ready, staying on the Ethiopian's heels and going into the lead for the last time coming off the final corner.  Mwangi and Fujiwara each pushed on alone to clear 2:09.  A short distance back the fast-closing Yamamoto caught Ishikawa, the pair dueling over the final kilometers and Yamamoto coming out ahead despite Ishikawa running a two-minute PB.

Matsumura also held on for a PB in 2:10:12, holding off 2008 Tokyo Marathon winner Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland).  Yamamoto, Ishikawa and Matsumura all ran well a month ago at the Marugame Half, an indicator of its importance to the Japanese marathon season.  2008 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Tomoya Adachi (Team Asahi Kasei) ran a PB 2:10:22 for 9th, with Hideaki Tamura (Team JR Higashi Nihon) rounding out the top ten with a solid 2:10:54 PB just ahead of Fujiwara and Ishikawa's teammate Ryosuke Fukuyama (Team Honda) in a 2:10:59 PB.

Post-race Kipruto was happy with his performance, his first time under 2:10 since 2011, but said he had trouble with the cold wind.  Fujiwara was all smiles, finally getting back to 2:08 after ten years.  How many people have had that kind of career trajectory?  A 2:08:12 debut in college, almost ten years of 2:12 marathons, a 2:11 last fall, then at last at age 31, from the depths of the general division following through on the promise of his debut with a World Championships place on the line.  How good must that have felt?  You could almost see the joy radiating out of him.

Fujiwara's 2:08:51 at 4th place overall means Japan's current probable lineup for the Moscow World Championships is:
  • Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) - 2:08:00 - PB (4th, Beppu-Oita)
  • Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Prefecture Gov't) - 2:08:15 - PB (1st, Beppu-Oita)
  • Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:08:24 - PB (2nd, Fukuoka)
  • Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 2:08:35 - PB (2nd Beppu-Oita)
  • Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) - 2:08:51 (4th, Lake Biwa)
Three of them were on the last World Championships team, Horibata and Nakamoto making the top ten in Daegu and Nakamoto also finishing 6th at the London Olympics.  But it's not over yet.  The London and Boston Marathons remain in the team selection process, and at least one promising man, Nakamoto's teammate Bunta Kuroki (Team Yasukawa Denki), is slated to run London.  Kuroki has been on the same kind of steady improvement curve since his debut as Nakamoto, setting up a situation where he may well run 2:08.  If he is faster than them, who will be cut, Nakamoto or Fujiwara?  Regardless, a team with five 2:08 men, four of them running 2:08 for the second time to get there, would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.  The fact that this scenario is possible says a good deal about the rebound of Japanese men's marathoning.  It's a shame the powers that be have done away with the team medals.

68th Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon
Otsu, Shiga, 3/3/13
click here for complete results

 1. Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) - 2:08:34
2. Tariku Jufar (Ethiopia) - 2:08:37
3. James Mwangi (Kenya/Team NTN) - 2:08:48
4. Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) - 2:08:51
5. Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) - 2:09:06
6. Suehiro Ishikawa (Team Honda) - 2:09:10 - PB
7. Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 2:10:12 - PB
8. Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland) - 2:10:18
9. Tomoya Adachi (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:10:22 - PB
10. Hideaki Tamura (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:10:54 - PB
11. Ryosuke Fukuyama (Team Honda) - 2:10:59 - PB
12. Noritaka Fujiyama (Team Sumitomo Denko) - 2:11:34 - PB
13. Aleksey Reunkov (Russia) - 2:11:41
14. Masashi Hayashi (Team Yakult) - 2:12:17
15. Masayuki Obata (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 2:13:17 - PB
16. Yoshihiro Yamamoto (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 2:13:22 - debut
17. Dishon Karukuwa Maina (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 2:13:38
18. Kazuki Ikenaga (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:13:52
19. Yoshiaki Shiota (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 2:14:10 - debut
20. Koji Kobyashi (Team Subaru) - 2:14:11
21. Abderrahim Bouramdane (Morocco) - 2:14:14
22. Makoto Fukui (Team Fujitsu) - 2:14:18
23. Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) - 2:14:23
24. Tomoyuki Kawakami (Team Hitachi Butsuryu) - 2:14:36 - PB
25. Koji Matsuoka (Team Mazda) - 2:14:42
26. Nobuhiro Nakao (Team Honda) - 2:14:57 - debut
27. Yasushi Yamamoto (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:15:15 - PB
28. Shinobu Kubota (Komazawa Univ.) - 2:15:48 - debut
29. Makoto Iwase (SDF Academy) - 2:16:03
30. Takashi Horiguchi (Team Honda) - 2:16:34

DNF - Peter Kirui (Kenya)
DNF - Paulo Roberto Paula (Brazil)
DNF - Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu)

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
53 comments
Read more